


Murder at Malfoy Manor

by HPFandom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Explicit Language, F/M, Humor, Multi, Mystery, Parody, Romance, Sexual Content, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-21
Updated: 2007-11-19
Packaged: 2018-09-30 11:43:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10162346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPFandom_archivist/pseuds/HPFandom_archivist
Summary: An invitation to a dinner party leads to murder. Follow the clues and see if you can solve the crime! Nominated at the Dramione awards!!!





	1. The Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> Note from SeparatriX, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [HP Fandom](http://fanlore.org/wiki/HP_Fandom_\(archive\)), which was closed for health and financial reasons. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [HP Fandom collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hpfandom/profile).

A/N: I'm back with another story! This one is loosely based on one of my favorite movies, CLUE and also sprinkled with a dash of murder and mystery- Agatha Christie style. Just remember that this IS a Draco/Hermione story, even though it might not seem like it (you know how I love the twists!) 

Disclaimer: Don't own it but wish I did.

The night was pitch black and the rain was coming down in torrents. He stood in front of the iron gate, which was swinging on its creaky hinges in the strong wind. He had to be out of his damn mind, coming here at this hour and this weather! Maybe he should just forget about the letter and go back to his warm and cozy flat; after all, he was sure this had to be some kind of joke!

 

But what if it wasn't? Could he just risk it? Sighing, he reached out a shivering hand and swung the gate open. There was a flash of lightning that illuminated the large impressive and somewhat creepy Manor house at the top of the long drive. He stopped, the rain pelting him hard in the face, a feeling of doom spreading through his soaked body, fear clenching his heart. He knew deep down that something terrible was going to happen this night, something that was already set in motion, something unstoppable.

A boom of thunder made him almost jump right out of skin, and when a hand fell on his shoulder, he screamed- the sound lost in the wind and rain. Turning, his face changed from one of anger and fear to one of confusion and slight happiness.

"What are you doing here?" he said, taking the man's hand and shaking it.

"I haven't the foggiest! This impressive owl brought me a letter this evening, informing me that I was invited to a dinner party." Neville pulled out the parchment from his pocket and the wind immediately caught it, whipping it high into the bare branches of the nearest oak tree. 

Harry smiled and shook his head. "Slick, Neville!"

Neville looked up into the tree, the rain blinding him. "It's gone," he said, frustrated at his bad luck.

"Doesn't matter, does it? We know we were both invited here tonight for a feast at this lovely house of repressing evil, right?" Harry and Neville both looked up the drive. "Do you suppose we will be murdered as soon as we set foot inside?"

"I guess we'll find out, won't we?" Neville said, gulping. "Ready?"

Together they walked up the long winding path against the wind, dead leaves crunching under their feet. By the time they got to the front door, the rain was so heavy that it was difficult to see right in front of their faces. Harry lifted the heavy brass knocker that was in the distinct shape of a coiling snake. "Who do you think lives here?"

Neville was about to take a guess, when the door slowly opened and there stood a small house elf, wearing a lilac tuxedo. "Good evening sirs, Master is expecting you." He ushered them in, and closed the door. "If sirs would please follow me..." His white loafers made loud squeaking noises on the highly polished marble floor.

Neville and Harry eyed each other, repressing smiles. The clothing the elf was wearing was just so hideously ugly; it was hard not to laugh. 

"Um... that's a lovely outfit you're wearing," Harry said. "I love the color, it's so... purple."

"Thank you sir, my Mistress made it for me." The elf caressed the polyester material lovingly. He picked off a piece of lint and fixed his plumb colored bow tie. "She is having very good taste, my Mistress!"

"Your Mistress?" Neville asked. "And just who is this Mistress you speak of? I thought you said your MASTER was expecting us?"

"Master IS expecting you, he has been talking of nothing else for days!"

"Does this Master of yours have a name?" Harry asked, very curiously. "Do I know him?"

"Not as well as I know you, Potter."

They had reached the door to a huge drawing room and there in the corner sat Draco Malfoy; a glass of brandy in on hand and an unlit cigar in the other. He looked as smug as ever; richly dressed and manicured. He uncrossed his legs and stood up, stretching slightly, as if bored already. His pale hair fell onto his forehead as he bent over to pet a pure bred blood hound on the head as it slept at his feet.

"Malfoy, what is the meaning of this? Why have you invited us to a dinner party? How did you find my address? Who do you..."

"Too many damn questions Potter. Ignorance is bliss as they say," He snapped his fingers as the end of his cigar lit up. He puffed it twice, the sweet smelling smoke circling around his head. "Cigar?" he held out an ornate gold box. "The best money can buy..."

"Um, no," Neville said, wrinkling his nose.

"Potter?" Draco offered.

"Smoking is for losers," he said, "But I WILL have a drink."

Draco smirked and closed the cigar box with a loud snap. "Such a hypocrite, Potter! Won't puff a stogie but will kill his liver with booze!" He snapped his fingers again and the House Elf appeared. "Mr. Potter would like a...." He raised his eyebrows in question.

"A Sherry."

"Sherry? Are you serious?" Draco chuckled. "Very interesting... very VERY interesting!" He turned to the elf. "Mr. Potter would like a SHERRY." He laughed again, shaking his head slowly.

Harry frowned. He saw nothing wrong with drinking Sherry. What the hell was Malfoy laughing about?

"I'd like a drink," Neville said. 

Draco took another drag of his cigar. "Let me guess, Longbottom, you'd like a Mint Julip?"

Neville rolled his eyes. "Why would I want a girlie drink like that? I'll have a glass of your best scotch. You're not the only one with expensive taste, Malfoy."

Draco gave Neville a huge knowing grin. "I think we share more than a taste for good liquor, Longbottom."

Neville blanched. "I... I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

As Neville took the Scotch from the elf, a woman strolled into the Drawing room. She was dressed in a blood red tight cocktail dress that hugged her every curve and her jet black hair was smoothed into extremely tight French knot on the back of her head. She smiled; her bright red lips making her teeth look very white. "Hello, Neville," she said sweetly.

Neville's jaw dropped and his hand began trembling so badly that he dropped the drink on the expensive white carpet under his feet. The house elf immediately dropped to his knees and began to sop it up with a towel he conjured. "P...Pansy?"

"I'm sure you remember my WIFE," Draco said, with a hint of disgust. 

Pansy's highly lacquered nails flashed in the firelight as she held her hand out to a visibly shaken Neville. "It's been so long since I've had the pleasure of your company, Mr. Longbottom."

Draco snorted into his glass. Everyone's head snapped towards him. "What?"

"Something funny, Draco?" Pansy asked, her black eyes glinting with what could only be hatred.

"No, DARLING," he said with fake sweetness. "I was just remembering a joke that Blaise told me at the office earlier." He smirked at her. "It was about this woman who was cheating on her husband," he said, loving the stunned look on her face. He was clearly enjoying this he knew she knew it.

Pansy gave him a dirty look and then turned back to Neville with a smile and a light tinkling laugh. "My HUSBAND is such a comedian!"

Harry had the strange feeling that something was going on, like he was sitting in the audience watching a play unfold. Clearly these three people were hiding something. Neville was shocked at seeing Pansy. Why? He'd seen her millions of times. Draco looked as tough he was enjoying watching Neville squirm uncomfortably and his eyes kept darting between his wife and Neville as if he was a studying fungus under a microscope.

Neville finally managed to calm himself a little and took Pansy's still out stretched hand. She grasped it and pulled him closer, embracing him as if he were an old friend and not someone she had absolutely loathed for years. His eyes closed momentarily as if he were savoring a delicious dessert.

Harry watched them with keen interest. If he didn't know better, he'd think Pansy and Neville were closer than everyone thought. But that was just ludicrous! Neville would never sleep with Malfoy's wife! Then again, why would Malfoy be glaring at Neville in that murderous way if something wasn't going on?

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud knocking at the front door. The house elf got to his knees, straightened his tux and swiftly left the room. The three in the Drawing room heard distant talking, the door closing and then the elf's squeaky footsteps followed by the distinct sound of a woman's high heels.

Draco and Harry looked up as the new guest entered and stood in the doorway, her well plucked eyebrow raised in amused curiosity. She was wearing a stunning black dress that fell to mid thigh, showing off toned muscular legs that were sheathed in black fishnet stockings. Her brown hair fell in luscious tendrils down her back and framed her beautiful face.

Neville and Pansy looked up as the house elf announced, "May I present Mrs. Hermione Granger-Weasley." 

She took a few steps forward and then rushed towards Harry. "Harry!" she kissed him on the cheek. "I'm so happy to see you, it's been months!"

Draco was frozen in place, his heart thumping erratically. God she was gorgeous! He closed his eyes, thinking she was most definitely some illusion. Nope! still there. He scanned her from head to toe, from her sparkling eyes that were outlined in very black liner, to her almost impossibly high patent leather pumps. A vision of himself slowly making love to her while she had on nothing but those shoes flashed into his mind. She was walking talking sex, that's what she was!

The last time he had seen her, she had been doing research in the archives at the Ministry. Her hair was a tangled mess, twisted and held on top of her head by a quill, so that the feather stuck up like some sort of Indian brave. She had been wearing Muggle clothing; a grey and maroon plaid skirt and a white oxford shirt, the sleeves rolled up, halfway unbuttoned and almost all the way untucked.

She looked frustrated and- more than a little sexy. He hid in the row of yellowing parchments closest to her and spied on her. She was chewing on the end of her glasses. "When had she gotten glasses?" he wondered. He was mesmerized by the way she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, sighing every time she turned a page in the giant tome she was reading.

He spent hours among the smell of moldering parchments and books just observing her. "Weasley is such a lucky bastard!" he thought. He would give anything to come home to her every night; spend the early morning hours making love to her, holding her hand as they walked down the beach at sunset. It wasn't fair that he was stuck with a whore like Pansy for a wife while Weasley got the prize! Pansy was trash and Hermione was treasure.

He had left the archives and strolled out of the building and into the bright sunshine, dreaming about how different his life would be if only he was married to Hermione! If only there was some way he could make her leave that red headed moron! He sighed, thinking that there was probably nothing he could do- and then, much to his delight, he came across a scene that made his heart leap for joy.

He had crossed the street and made his way through the park, towards the shady part where everyone went for privacy. Low and behold, there, on a secluded bench was the answer to his prayers!

He had a chance! He knew he wanted her and now he knew it was possible! She was the most beautiful thing in the world, even when she was a fashion disaster. Now here she was, dressed like a seductress and coming towards him, looking very angry.

"Draco Malfoy! What is the meaning of this?" She shoved the invitation in his face. "Tell me!"

Draco suppressed the urge to grab her by the bare shoulders and smash his lips onto hers. "Please, Granger...I mean Weasley, calm down, no need to get your knickers in a twist. All will be revealed- in time." He took a puff from his cigar and blew it in her face. She coughed and waved the smoke away with the parchment. "Now sit down and be a good girl or I'll have to sick the dog on you."

The dog looked up with tired bloodshot eyes and then its head fell back to the floor with a thud.

Draco frowned. "Some attack dog you are!" Draco walked over to the fireplace, Hermione's laughter following behind him. God he wanted her but she must not suspect it- yet. Maybe after he revealed what he knew, he would tell her, but not until then. Draco smiled as he thought about the secrets he carried, secrets that were going to destroy friendships and marriages!

There was a blinding flash of lightning and a loud boom of crashing thunder.The knocker on the front door sounded again and everyone looked up, wondering who in the world would show up next.


	2. Soup and Secrets

  
Author's notes: More guests arrive and one of them has a few secrets.  


* * *

Hermione heard her husband's angry voice and then Ginny's telling him to shut up. She inwardly cringed, and couldn't help but sneer in disgust. She happened to glance over at Draco, who was leaning on the mantle above the fireplace, smirking at her. 

She found herself wondering what was behind that mischievous look he was giving her. There was no way he could possibly know that every time she saw her husband, she wanted to crawl under a rock and hide. He definitely didn't know that for years now, she had suffered in a loveless marriage, wishing with all her heart that Ron would just die so that she could be free. 

It wasn't the fact that Ron could sometimes be dumber than dirt, or that she had caught him on numerous occasions betting large sums of money on Quidditch games, or even the way he liked her to pretend she was someone one named 'Patty' during sex; it was the fact that for years she had been in love with someone else that made her desperate to be rid of him. Of course the man she longed to be with was married as well, but she was sure their's was a loveless marriage as well.

Hermione was full of regrets and secret longings, and she guarded them with her life. Looking at Draco's piercing eyes, she wondered though, if he had somehow found out what lie in her heart. In a way, she hoped he had.

"Hermione!" Ron said, seeing her standing there. "What are you doing here?"

She tore her eyes from Draco and confronted her angry confused husband. "Probably the same thing you're doing here, Ron. To have dinner."

"Why didn't you tell me you got an invitation?" 

"Maybe," Draco said, pushing from the mantle and coming towards them. "She wanted to get the hell away from you for a while." He stopped in front of Ron and looked him dead in the eye. "Or maybe she was expecting to see me here and that's why she kept it from you." He looked over at Hermione, "We all know that she's secretly been in love with me for years!"

Ron lunged and Draco side stepped him easily, put out his foot and tripped him, sending him to the floor. "What's wrong Weasley? Why should you care if your wife is having an affair? It's not like you hav..."

"Malfoy," Harry said, putting his hand on Draco's chest. "Can you just for once act like a grown man?"

Draco smirked at Harry dangerously. "You WOULD know all about GROWN MEN, now wouldn't you, Potter?"

"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean, Malfoy?" Ginny said.

"You'll see, Mrs. Potter, you'll see."

"Draco, for the love of god!" Pansy said. "Just leave them alone!"

"Shut up, Pansy."

"Don't tell her to shut up!" Neville said, clenching his fists, looking murderous.

"I'll tell her whatever I want, Longbottom! She's MY wife, remember?"

"Hmm hmmm," the house elf cleared his throat. "I am presenting Mr. Blaise Zabini!"

In the commotion, no one had heard the door and they were startled when Blaise sauntered into the room, looking dashing and debonair; his black hair slicked back and a tiny thin mustache worn over his full sensual lips. The dog got up and padded over to him, licking him on the hand. He stroked its head, called it a good dog and then it went back to its resting place by the chair.

"I see the gangs all here!" he said, walking over like he owned the place and pouring himself a drink. "Potter!" he said, clapping Harry hard on the back. "Good to see you! And Ginny! So lovely. You really are a lucky man, Potter!"

Blaise glanced up from kissing Ginny's hand and caught sight of Hermione. "Why Mrs. Weasley, you get more beautiful every time I see you!" He dropped Ginny's hand and picked up hers. Suddenly, he pulled her closer, resting his other hand on the small of her back, his face an inch from hers. "Your eyes remind me of dead autumn leaves swirling in a mud puddle." He kissed her lightly on the mouth. "You're lips are like velvet drapes that have been sitting in the sunlight." He tried to kiss her again and someone shouted.

"That's enough! Get away from her!" 

Everyone looked around, thinking it had come from Ron, but it was Draco who was standing there, seething with jealous anger. He took Blaise by the arm and wrenched him away from Hermione.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, searching her eyes. She gave him a small confused smile for an answer. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached up and caressed her cheek.

"Hey!" Ron said, suddenly realizing that Malfoy had his hands on his wife.

"Draco, why are you seducing Weasley's wife right in front of him? You know it's not polite!" Blaise chuckled and poured another glass of whiskey. "Not that I blame you. Look at her! She's got that ass that makes me want to grab it and knead it like bread dough!"

Pansy didn't like the way Draco was drooling over Granger. It never bothered her when he checked out other woman because she knew he only wanted sex from them but this... this was completely different! The way he was looking at her, the tender way he was touching her- why he was in love with her! He had no right to be happy!

"Get your filthy hands off my husband!" she said, stalking across the floor and pulling them apart. She took his face in her hands and kissed him. To everyone in the room, it was a kiss full of passion; to Draco and Pansy, it was disgusting.

Neville's face fell and he looked almost as if he wanted nothing more than to tear Draco limb from limb.

Hermione turned away from the kissing pair, it was hard to stomach. "So Ginny," she said like nothing was wrong. "How was your day?"

"How was my day?" Ginny said, incredulously "What the hell is going on here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Harry," Ginny said, pulling on his sleeve. "Am I the only one who thinks something is going on here?"

"No, dear," Harry said, watching Draco escape from Pansy's suction and wipe his mouth like it was diseased. "I think there is more to this party than just dinner."

Right on cue, the house elf came into the room, banged on a tiny gong he was holding and announced that dinner was ready. "Follow me to the dining room please," he said. 

Everyone filed in, looked at the small decorative name cards and took their assigned seats. Down one side of the large table was Harry, Blaise and Ginny. On the opposite was Hermione, Neville and Pansy. Draco picked up his name, looked at it strangely as if wondering why he was sitting at the head of the table, shrugged his shoulders and sat down.

Ron stood uncertainly, not seeing another empty chair. "Um, where exactly am I supposed to sit?"

"On the floor like a good dog," Draco said. Harry clenched his jaw. This was not going to be a very pleasant evening.

"Sorry sir!" A tiny house elf said at Ron's elbow. He snapped his long fingers and a chair appeared at the other end of the table. "You were invited at the last minute and we forgot to add your place."

"The last minute?"

"Yes sir. We was informed that you was coming right before you knocked on the door." He pulled the chair out and then pushed it up to the table. The confusion on Ron's face was evident. "When did you lot get your invitations then?" he asked, fixing his chair and shooing the elf away. 

"Earlier this morning," Hermione said. "As soon as I got to work it was waiting for me on my desk."

"Mine came this morning as well," Harry said. "What about yours?" he asked Ginny.

"I was attacked by this owl during lunch in the park. I was playing hide and seek with the children and it swooped down and just about took off my head."

Neville leaned forward and spoke to Harry. "Well, mine came this evening about two hours before I was supposed to be here. Do you suppose I was a last minute guest as well?"

"Maybe," Blaise said, "the invitations all came at different times on purpose."

"Why are we speculating when Malfoy is sitting right here. Let's just ask him!" Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

Draco was about to respond, when the door swung open and a parade of house elves wearing purple tuxes, sat bowls of steaming soup down in front of them.

Ron looked down at his bowl of red liquid. "Serving blood are we, Malfoy? Is it from the innocent victims you have chained in the dungeons?"

"I'll be serving yours if you don't shut the fuck up, Weasley!"

"Language, Draco!" Pansy said, slurping her tomato soup from a highly polished silver spoon.

"I'll say FUCK when ever I want, Pansy! Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" Draco said and then starting singing the word to the tune of Jingle Bells. 

"Oh VERY mature!" Ginny said, frowning in disgust.

Hermione was stifling a grin behind her hand every time he said fuck really loud at the 'HEY!" part. Everyone else was doing their best to ignore him; Neville going as far as putting his hands over his ears and humming. Only Pansy and Hermione seemed not to be bothered by his juvenile display.

He finished three rounds and then with not another word, he started to devour his soup. They all ate in silence, eyeing each other warily, wondering what the others were thinking. Nobody spoke again until the main course was served.

"The silence is KILLING me!" Blaise said, stabbing a bit of roast beef with his fork. "Somebody say something- anything!"

"Okay then," Hermione said. "Lets talk about our lives. I'm curious to know how everyone's been doing, especially you, Blaise. I haven't seen you in more than five years." Everyone turned their attention on him, waiting because of course, they were all curious. Blaise had been no where to be found for years and everyone assumed he had moved away or simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

"Me too," Neville said. "You just show up here like you haven't been missing all this time. Where have you been?"

"Well, if everyone is through with their dinner, I suggest we retire to the library and I will be more than HAPPY to tell you what I've been up to." He glanced at Draco, who nodded his head, wiped his mouth with his napkin and stood up.

"Sounds good to me!" he said. "Blaise, why don't you lead the way?"

Once in the comfy and cozy library, they all took seats, Ron making sure Hermione was no where near Draco and Draco making sure he was as far away from Pansy as he could get.

The house elf poured everyone a Brandy and Draco offered the men cigars. Ron and Blaise took one, lit up and puffed away. Hermione started choking on the smoke, got up from her seat next to Ron with a huff and sat down next to Ginny instead.

Ron shrugged his shoulders. As long as she didn't sit next to Malfoy, he didn't really care. "So Blaise," he said, blowing a smoke ring as big as his head. "What have you been up to all these years?"

Blaise, who was leaning against the wall looking amused, glanced around the room making sure to look each person in the eye before speaking. "Well, Weasley," he said, tapping his ashes on the floor. "I spent four years traveling to exotic lands; Italy, Egypt- Canada." He pushed off the wall and started pacing around the room, puffing his cigar and sipping his Brandy. "And for the past year I've spent every waking moment spying on all of you. Gathering little tidbits of information that I could use to blackmail you!"

"What!" Harry said.

"That's right Potter!" Blaise said with an evil grin. "I know the secrets of every person in this room!"


	3. Exposed!

  
Author's notes: Who will Blaise expose?  


* * *

Hermione turned deathly pale and Harry looked as if he had just eaten rancid maggot infested pork. Ron tried to seem as though he didn't care but his eyes told a different story. He was desperately trying to think of which secret it was that Blaise knew about.

Draco squeezed the arms of his chair so hard that his knuckles were white. A small gasp came from Pansy and Neville dropped another drink. Only Ginny seemed to not be affected by this announcement. 

"Surprised?" Blaise said with a devious smirk. 

"No," Harry said. "I always thought you had no life and now I know it's true. Spying for an entire year?" He laughed, making Blaise frown a bit. "What reason- besides being a total nutter- would you have for stalking us?"

"Simple, Potter," Blaise said puffing away at his cigar. "Money and Revenge."

"Money?" Ginny asked. "But you're rich! Why would you need our money?"

"Correction, Mrs. Potter, I USED to be rich and I will be again- thanks to all of you!"

"Used to be?" Ron asked. "What happened? You piss all your money on cheap booze and even cheaper women?"

"No. Although there was this one time in Winnipeg that I had a great time with this one-legged whore..."

"Ew!" Pansy said, wrinkling her nose. "Just EW!"

"Just about scared the living shit out of me. Pop! Artificial leg came right off in my hand just as I was getting ready to show her my signature move."

Harry interrupted him much to everyone's joy. "Yes, well as interesting as your sexcapades with crippled hookers sounds, I really would rather know about the 'money and revenge' thing'."

Blaise shrugged his shoulders. "If that's what you want." He walked slowly over to where Draco was sitting, looking paler than usual. "You see, I got the idea to blackmail all of you from my dear friend Draco."

"What?"

"There's a big shock!"

"I KNEW he had something to do with this!"

"I had nothing to do with any of this!" Draco shouted, jumping out of his seat. He glared at Blaise, who was simply smiling at him as if amused by his outburst.

"Then you haven't been blackmailing him?" Hermione asked.

"No! Well yes. Sort of!"

"Sort of? Either you are or you're not," Harry said. "Which is it?"

"Fine! I hate the smug bastard, and when I found out the secret he's been hiding for years, I decided to use it to my advantage!"

Hermione realized something the others didn't. "Are you saying that you blackmailed HIM into spying on US?"

Draco looked at her helplessly. She was now going to think he was a ruthless disgusting prick and hate him even more. He watched his chances with her fly right out the window. He said nothing and his silence was answer enough for all of them.

"Let me get this straight," Ginny said. "Blaise comes back from where ever the hell he was, and you just happen to discover some deep dark secret about him; something so horrible that he's willing to waste an entire year of his life spying and gathering information on all of us just so you won't spill the beans?" she laughed in disbelief. "It must be one hell of a secret!"

Blaise shot Draco a warning look. "Yes, well," he said in a hurry. "We are not here to discuss my secrets. We are here to expose yours!"

"So you intend to turn the tables on Malfoy?" Neville said, thinking. "That must mean that you have some dirt on him as well."

"As a matter of fact I do and if he doesn't just sit here and keep his fucking mouth shut regarding what he knows about me, I'm going to tell it to the whole room!" Blaise watched as Draco struggled with his decision. He knew Malfoy wanted to tell but there was no way he would ever want anyone to find out what HE was hiding.

Blaise looked around after deciding Draco was going to keep his silence. "Now where should we start?" 

Every person in the room lowered their eyes and tried to make themselves seem smaller so Blaise wouldn't begin with them. "Mr. Longbottom!"

Neville jumped. He knew it was going to be him because he had no luck. 

Blaise shook his head and clicked his tongue as if disappointment. "I think the school Governors would be very interested to know about a certain student of yours by the name of Lucinda Maxwell."

Neville looked up at Blaise in horror. His hands were visibly shaking and he had the look of someone who had just been punched in the stomach. "You wouldn't!"

Pansy narrowed her black eyes. "Who is Lucinda Maxwell and what exactly does Neville have to do with her?" There was a distinct jealous tone to her voice that wasn't missed by any one in the room. 

"Lucinda happens to be a young student of Longbottom's."

"Shut up Zabini," Neville said, clenching and unclenching his hands.

"No." He strolled around the room until he was standing with his hands on the back of Neville's chair. "It seems Longbottom has been taking sexual favors from this student and in return giving her excellent marks in Herbology."

Blaise had a hard look in his eyes that reminded Harry of a vicious Rottweiler he had seen once. 

"That is not true!" Neville said jumping from his seat. He looked at Pansy, who was covering her mouth in horror. "I would never do anything like that!"

Hermione immediately came to Neville's defense. "There is absolutely no way that he would EVER do anything of the sort. Come on! This is NEVILLE we're talking about here!" She gave a small disbelieving laugh. "He's not capable of taking advantage of a student; it's not in his nature."

Blaise looked over at Draco who nodded and snapped his fingers. The house elf came into the room carrying a box. "Thank you," he said, dismissing the elf. "Not in his nature huh?" he said, pulling a large moving photo from a manila envelope and holding it up for all to see. "I'd have to say it is."

It was shocking to say the least. There was Neville sitting in the chair behind his desk; his pants down and his head thrown back in what could only be described as pure ecstasy. What was even more shocking was the fact that there was brown haired girl in a Hogwarts school uniform kneeling in between his splayed legs. As they watched, her head bobbed up and down as she sucked his dick like a pro.

"Holy shit!" Ron said. His head slowly turned towards Neville. He looked at him like he had never seen him before. 

"Neville, is this for real?" Hermione asked. She didn't want to believe that this person she had been so close to for so many years was actually capable of doing something so foul. "Please tell me this picture is a fake."

"Oh it's not a fake, Mrs. Weasley. Of that I'm sure." He took a seat on the edge of the sofa. "Oh and Longbottom? One more thing."

Neville kept his eyes to the floor, scared out of his mind of what could possibly happen next.

"Draco was going to tell everyone about how your Grandmother died under- shall we say- MYSTERIOUS CICUMSTANCES? It seems that small traces of various poisons were found in her system- poisons only a Herbologist would know of." He smoothed his mustache with two fingers. "I have here a written statement from an eye witness who says he sold you..."

This was just too much for Neville and he flipped. "How dare you insinuate that I killed her?"

"Did you?" Pansy asked.

Neville glared at her. "I don't have to sit here and listen to this!" He headed for the door. "And neither do any of you!" He threw the door open and stomped into the hall. "I'm leaving and I suggest you all do the same."

They heard his footsteps disappear down the hall and when Blaise made no attempt to stop him, everyone got up and quickly followed- everyone except for Draco.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked Blaise.

"You'll see. Just keep your mouth shut and do as I say. Hell, you just might thank me for this later."

"But they're all leaving!"

"No they're not," Blaise smirked at Draco. "They can't."

***

Out in the foyer, Neville was pulling on the door handle and swearing. "Why won't the damn door open?"

Ron pushed him out of the way and tried it himself. "Locked. It won't budge."

"Stand back," Hermione said, pulling out her wand. "Alohamora!" Nothing happened. She looked down at it in confusion. "Did you see a light come from my wand?"

"No," Ginny said.

"Try a different spell," Pansy urged.

"Reducto!"

Still nothing.

"Maybe it's your wand," Harry said. "Let me try." He pulled his out and aimed it at the heavy door.

"You're wasting your time Potter," Blaise said coming towards them. "At precisely 9 0'clock p.m., every door, window and fireplace sealed itself."

 

He stopped next to Hermione and Ginny. "Oh and the moment you stepped across the threshold, your wands were deactivated." He flashed the stunned group a   
proud smile. "Shall we go back into the library?" he said, putting his arms around Ginny and Hermione. "There is still SO much to reveal!"

"You can't keep us prisoner here!" Hermione said, throwing off his arm and rushing for the library where Draco was sitting alone, staring into the fireplace. 

He looked up at her as she stalked towards him, and he thought about how beautiful she was when she was pissed off. Her eyes crackled with fury and her cheeks flamed with bright pink patches. He wanted her so badly and would do anything to have her for him self- even kill if he had to. 

"Draco Malfoy, you let us out of here at once!" She hovered over him, her face inches from his. She had never before been this close to him. Never before noticed just how long his pale lashes were, how sensual and soft his lips were or how damn sexy he smelled. She had often thought about what it would be like to be so near him and she found it better than she had ever imagined!

She hovered over him, her hands on the arms of the chair, her chest heaving. He had dreamt of a moment like this many times. If only the circumstances were different. If only they were alone and if only she knew how he felt... 

Hermione found it hard to tear her eyes away from his. His lips were so close! What would he do if she were to just lean in a bit further and kiss him? Too bad she had never had the courage to tell him how she felt. All these years wondering how different her life could have turned out if she had somehow been able to just tell him! Now he - and everyone else was going to find out her deepest darkest secret. She was desperate to get out of the house because when everyone learned what she had done there was no telling what Draco would do.

"Hermione?" he said in a whisper.

"Yes?"

"There's something I want to tell you." His hand came up and he slowly caressed  
her soft cheek with his fingertips.

Hermione found herself moving closer, her lips brushing against his.

"OI! Get your disgusting hands off my damn wife, Malfoy!" Ron shouted. Harry managed to grab his arm before he could rush at Draco.

"Granger, you fucking slut!" Pansy said, halting in her tracks. "Stop throwing yourself at my husband or I'll kill you!" She snatched a handful of Hermione's hair and pulled it, yanking her back. "Draco is mine!"

"Get off me you psycho bitch!" Hermione turned, her scalp screaming as Pansy tightened her grip. She dug her nails into Pansy's arms, drawing blood and then suddenly she was on the ground. Pansy was on top of her, slapping and scratching and pulling out clumps of her hair.

"Cat fight!" Blaise said. "Some one get the baby oil!"

Hermione grabbed Pansy's head with both her hands and head butted her as hard as she could. She heard a sickening crunch as Pansy's nose broke. Blood squirted out, drenching them both.

"Ow! You fucking whore!" Pansy cried, attacking Hermione with a vengeance. She punched every inch of Hermione she could get to, screaming like a lunatic.

Hermione managed to get her legs locked around Pansy's waist, not caring that her dress was now up riding so high that everyone could get an eyeful of her knickers. She flipped her over and straddled her, holding her flailing arms down . "Call me a whore or a slut once more, Pansy and I'll kill you!"

"Okay! Break it up!" Ron said, taking Hermione by the elbow and wrenching her off Pansy. Neville helped Pansy to her feet.

"Tell me, Draco," Blaise said, blowing smoke rings. "How does it feel to have two beautiful women fighting over you?" He chuckled a little at Draco's obvious discomfort. "One would never suspect Hermione to have the hots for an evil genius such as yourself would they? It came as quite a shock to me, I can tell you that!"

Ron looked up. "My wife does not have the hots for Malfoy!"

"And how would you know, Weasley?" Blaise asked, rolling his eyes. "You're never home are you? To busy out placing bets on Quidditch matches aren't you?" He gave a smile reminiscent of a hungry barracuda. "You should spend more time at home pleasuring your lovely wife instead of loosing massive amounts of money, not to mention the deed to your house, by making half assed bets on losing teams!"

Hermione was furious. "You... you lost the house?"

"He lies!" Ron said vehemently. 

"I do, do I?" Blaise walked over to the box and pulled out a formal looking collection of papers. "Then why is it that I have legal documents stating that your house now belongs to one..." He shuffled the papers, looking for the name. "Ah here it is! A Mr. Tito Strangelli?"

"Give me those!" Hermione said, snatching the papers rudely away from Blaise. She scanned them, her eyes getting wider and her lips pressing together in a thinner and thinner line. "Ronald Weasley!" she shouted. "How could you do this? Where are we supposed to live?" She threw the papers to the ground and faced him, looking murderous.

Much to Draco's delight, she slapped Ron across the face, the sound echoing through the room like a gun shot.

"Don't you even care about me and the children?" she screamed. "You selfish bastard!"

Blaise looked as if Christmas had come early. "Wait just a minute, Mrs. Weasley. There's more!"

Hermione whirled around. "More?"

Blaise pulled a mini recorder from the breast pocket of his jacket and with a devilish grin, pressed the play button.

They heard a man with an Italian accent addressing Ron:

"Mr. Weasley, you will hand over the deed to your house, the 500,000 Galleons and the autographed picture of Harry Potter by midnight on the 4th or else."

"Or else what?" Ron asked, his voice a little shaky. "What if I refuse?"

They heard laughter in the background. "If you refuse, Mr. Weasley, we will kill your wife, your children, and then after you have seen it all happen, we will kill you!" The Italian man growled like a bull dog. "Do I make myself clear, Mr. Weasley?"

Now they distinctly heard Ron crying. "Yes! I'll give you whatever you want. Just don't kill me!"

Blaise turned it off with a loud click. "Interesting that he thought only of himself being killed. Never mentioned you or your children."

Everyone in the room was horrified. Ron just stood there, his mouth gaping. Suddenly he turned to Hermione and fell to her feet. 

"Please Hermione! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do any of this. You have to forgive me, please!" He was latched onto her legs and bawling like a baby.

Draco was totally disgusted. "Why should she ever forgive you? This was low even for you, Weasley!"

Ron looked up and searched out Harry. Harry, his best friend in the whole world. If anyone could forgive him it was Harry! "You believe me right Harry? You know I didn't mean for it to go that far, don't you?" When Harry didn't see it his way, Ron snapped.

"How dare all of you sit in judgment on me? You have no idea what I've been through! None of YOU are pure and saintly or you wouldn't be here tonight!"

Harry shook his head. "I feel like I don't even know you, mate. I can't believe you would put your wife and children in danger just to bet on some stupid Quidditch match. I would never do anything like that." He looked at Ron in pity. "Now you've lost everything. She will never forgive you and neither will I."

Ginny was crying. "If you love someone, Ron, you never would do anything to hurt them." She wiped her tear streaked face with the back of her hand. "Harry would never do what you did. He would NEVER do anything to harm our marriage- our family. He loves us too much!"

Blaise cocked his eyebrow as if to say 'oh really?'.


	4. We Share Everything!

  
Author's notes: Time to find out some juicy secrets about Harry and Ginny!  


* * *

Harry peered over Ginny's head and caught the eye of a smirking Blaise. "Ginny, there is something I've got to tell you. Something you need to hear from me and not from Zabini over there." He was talking very fast and kept shooting nervous glances at Blaise.

"Aw! Come on now, Potter!" Blaise said. "Stop ruining all my fun. I'm the one calling the shots here, so sit your homosexual ass down and let me do the talking!"

"Did he just say homosexual?" Pansy asked, wiping the blood from her face with her handkerchief. "He did didn't he?" She put down the handkerchief and stared at Harry with amused curiosity.

"Yes, my dear Pansy," Draco said with a tiny chuckle. "Potter is as gay as the day is long."

Ron dropped the drink he was pouring and turned to Harry, open mouthed in shock. He looked as though he was going to puke at any moment. "It can't be true! It just can't!" Ron almost cried. He was thinking about all the times he had slept in the same room with his best mate and even more disgusting, all the times he had changed his clothes in front of him. What if had been checking him out?

"Oh it's true, Weasley. If you need proof, I happen to have some right here..." Blaise stuck his hand in the box and pulled out a roll of parchment that was tied with a blue ribbon. "This is addressed to Harry and it's from a certain individual whom I think we are all familiar with."

Ginny was silent. Her face was deathly pale, and she was breathing rather heavily. She dared not look at Harry for fear of losing her composure and throttling him on the spot.

"My darling Harry," Blaise read aloud.

"Give that to me right now Zabini. That is private property!" Harry stalked over to Blaise and tried to wrench the letter from his hand.

"Draco?" Blaise said calmly.

Draco got up from his comfy chair and grabbed a hold of Harry. 

"Get your fucking bloody hands off me Malfoy!" He struggled but much to his shock, Malfoy was a lot stronger than he looked. "Let me go, you bastard!"

"Just calm to fuck down Potter!" Draco said, pinning his arms behind his back. "You had your chance all this time to tell your wife what you've been doing. It's too late now. So unless you want me to knock your ass out, I suggest you let Zabini get this over with."

"No bloody way!" Harry said and managed to get free. He quickly ran for Blaise.

"Oh no you don't Potter!" Malfoy said grabbing the back of his suit jacket and spinning him around. "I warned you!" Draco pulled his fist back and punched Harry in the face. Harry fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Is he alright?" Neville asked, concerned.

"Never mind him," Ginny said quietly. "Go on Zabini, I want to hear it."

Blaise shrugged his shoulders and with a smile, continued to read. "These past few nights we've spent together have been pure heaven. I cannot wait to see you tonight. I long for your touch, your kisses, your pants and moans as we make love together! If I close my eyes I can see your beautiful emerald eyes, your sexy tousled black hair, the smooth porcelain look of your skin and the curve of your ass. Until tonight." Here Blaise looked up at Ginny. She was going to love this part- LOVE IT! "Your secret lover, Seamus."

Ginny's face went deathly pale and she fainted, landing next to her husband on the floor.

***

"Ginny!" Hermione fell down next to her and felt her pulse. "She's fainted is all." Hermione slapped her lightly on the cheek. "Ginny? Wake up, Ginny."

Ginny's eyes fluttered open and she tried to sit. "Someone help me up." Hermione put her arm around her and pulled her to her feet. "Did you say Seamus?" She asked, turning slowly towards Blaise. "I was hearing things right? You didn't say Seamus!" Ginny burst out in tears and put her head on Hermione's shoulder. "How could he do this to me?"

Harry was coming around. "God, what the hell happened?" he asked, painfully getting up and holding his swollen jaw. He suddenly remembered where he was and what was going on. Noticing that Ginny was crying, he started towards her. "Gin, I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you for so long but..."

Ginny turned on him in fury. "Seamus? Seamus!" she screamed. She started beating on Harry's chest. "I'll kill you- both of you! I can't believe this!"

Pansy sidled up to Blaise and asked loudly, "Why is Potters wife so upset about it being Finnigan? It seems a little strange doesn't it?

Blaise smiled down at Pansy. "Ah! Good question. VERY good question! Perhaps I can answer it with this."

Ginny stopped in her the middle of her tantrum and whirled around as Blaise pulled a tiny book from out of the box. "Where did you get that?" she asked, the tears still falling down her face. "What did you do? Break into my house and steal that, you damn thief!"

"So what if I did?" Blaise asked. "I needed new reading material." He flipped through the pages. "Who knew you were such a pervert?" He stopped at a certain page and began to read it to the room. "January 5th. Sometimes I'm tempted to slip Harry a sleeping potion. Then I'd be free to do whatever I wanted to him and he would be none the wiser. Maybe tomorrow night." Blaise snickered. "Quite the little rapist, aren't you?" He turned to the middle of the diary.

"Zabi..." 

"June 13th!" Blaise said drowning out Ginny's protests. "I met him in the park today. It was so exciting when he pulled me in the bushes, lifted up my skirt and took me from behind." 

Ginny let out a moan of anguish. Harry was totally confused because he could never remember ever having taken Ginny in the bushes.

"What was even more exciting," Blaise continued. "Was the fact that Seamus and I were fucking each other right across the street from where Harry was probably sitting at his desk doing paperwork at that exact moment."

"Oh damn!" Pansy laughed.

Ginny looked over at Harry. "Harry..."

"I don't want to hear it Ginny. You slept with Seamus!"

"Well so did you!"

Pansy was still laughing. "This has got to be the funniest thing I've ever heard! A husband and wife cheating on each other with the same man!"

"I can't believe that Seamus would do this!" Neville said. "You think you know someone..."

"Harry, please... it's over! It's been over for weeks. I love you. I only want to be with you!" Ginny was sobbing her eyes out. "Please! You have no right to be angry; you cheated on me as well!"

"I think," Draco said. "That Potter is angrier with the fact that cheated you on him with his beloved butt buddy than anything else. Isn't that right, Potter?" Draco sneered. "You're in love with Finnigan aren't you?"

"Just shut your mouth, Malfoy!" Hermione shouted. "It's none of your business so just stop making things worse!"

"You're right Mrs. Weasley. What happens between Potter and his wife is none of Draco's business but I know something that SHOULD be his business, don't you?" He grinned at her and winked. "Don't you think it's time Draco knows what you've done against his will? I'm sure Pansy and your husband will be very interested to hear this as well."

Hermione glared at Blaise, her eyes were crackling with anger. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh but I would, Mrs. Weasley!" His teeth were bared like a lion ready to pounce. "I'm dying to tell him."


	5. Not So Innocent

  
Author's notes: Oh Hermione! What have you done?  


* * *

"Dying to tell me what exactly?" Draco said. His heart was literally in his throat. Was Blaise going to tell him that Hermione secretly loved him? Then why would he have said she did something against his will? Her being in love with him was definitely not against his will. Hell, he would jump for fucking joy (in his mind, of course) if it were true.

"Blaise. you can't do this!" Hermione begged. "Please! You're not going to hurt only me. There are innocent chi... innocent people involved in this!" She grabbed a hold of his arm. "I'll do anything! Anything! Just don't tell him."

She was crying and pleading and it was breaking Draco's heart. He hated to see her this way but he was also so damn curious as to what she had done. He could see that the rest of them were as well.

Ron spoke up, "My God Hermione, what is it that you've done?" He had never seen her react this way to anything and it was unnerving. 

"What ever it is, it must be bad," Neville said to Harry. "I've never seen Hermione beg before."

"Me neither."

Blaise curled his upper lip is distaste. "Please, Mrs. Weasley. You're getting my Armani suit stained with your guilty tears." He pried her hand from his sleeve and brushed it off. Fixed his cuffs and sighed. "It's time to reveal a secret that has been carefully guarded for many years."

Pansy leaned forward in anticipation, almost falling from her chair. Neville was leaning on the mantle trying to look as though it could care less what Blaise was about to say. Harry was standing next to him, his mind still reeling from what had just happened with Ginny. 

Hermione looked around the room for some support and found it. Ginny came over. Putting her arms around Hermione, she tried to comfort her but it was no use. "Hermione, no matter what Zabini is about to say, I will always love you. You're my best friend and there is nothing going to change that."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that, Mrs. Potter" Blaise said, flashing her a bright smile.

"You are a vile piece of shit, you know that Zabini?" Ginny said.

"Sticks and stones, Mrs. Potter!" He started strolling around the room as if he was taking a leisurely walk in the park. He stopped in front of Ron who looked at him, fear in his eyes. "Mr. Weasley. Has it never bothered you that neither of your children looks nothing like you?"

Ron's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What do my children have to do with this?"

"Everything, Mr. Weasley! Everything!"

"Blaise, please!" Hermione wailed.

"Stop your damn crying woman or I'll be forced to shut you up myself!" he snarled. "Maybe you should have thought about the consequences before you did what you did. I'm going to tell everyone in this room what a sneaky bitch you really are and no amount of begging or crying is going to stop me!"

Draco gripped the arms of his chair. How dare he speak to her that way! He silently vowed that before this night was over, he would make Blaise pay.

"Now," Blaise said, putting a smile back on his face. "Back to business."

"For Merlin's sake, Zabini, hurry up!" Pansy said, excited. "I want to know what she's done!"

"Patience, Pansy. Perhaps you should be worrying about what it is you've done to deserve to be at this little party."

Pansy waved her hand in the air. "I've done lots of illegal things and I'm not ashamed of any of it and I don't really care what you have on me. I want to know what Granger's done!"

Blaise ignored her and made his way over to Draco slowly. "Malfoy, have you ever seen Hermione and Ron's children?"

Draco looked up at him. "Once. First day of Hogwarts for my son, I saw them on Platform 9 3/4."

"Notice anything about them that day?"

Draco thought hard. He really hadn't been looking at their kids; he was too busy memorizing how Hermione was dressed. "Can't remember."

Harry suddenly thought of something that had bothered him more than once. He had been around Ron and Hermione's children since they were born. There were times when he had actually thought that they looked nothing like Ron. Sure, they had Hermione's eyes and maybe their chins were shaped like hers but he saw nothing of Ron in them. In fact, they looked a lot like... He suddenly felt sick.

Neville heard Harry groan. "What? What is it?" he whispered.

Harry struggled to remain composed. "It can't be," he said too loudly. "Hermione would never..."

Blaise stopped his grilling of Draco and turned to Harry. "Realize something, Potter?"

Harry said nothing but his eyes wandered over to Hermione's. She was done crying and now there was a hard look about her. "Did you sleep with Malfoy, Hermione?" he asked.

Ron was red with rage. "Malfoy?" He faced his wife, looking murderous. "You had sex with Malfoy?" He threw his glass at the wall where it exploded. "You disgusting whore! How could you fuck him, huh?"

Hermione shook Ginny off and stepped up to Ron until she was inches from his face. She saw movement from the corner of her eye.

Draco actually stood; he was so certain that Ron would lay his hands on her violently. He was not about to let that happen.

"Sit down Malfoy. I can handle this," she said, glaring at Ron. "I have NEVER touched Malfoy but there were plenty of times I imagined I was while you were fucking me!"

Draco couldn't help but smirk as he slowly sat back down. So she did want him as much as he wanted her. Interesting development!

"If you didn't sleep with him Hermione then why do your children look just like him?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

Pansy, Neville and Ginny all gasped at the same time.

"Yeah, Hermione, how do you explain that?" Ron asked. He had always secretly been bothered by the fact that his children didn't resemble him what so ever. They looked strangely like someone else, a familiar someone. He thought maybe it was distant family member, a relative he had seen in an old photo or something. Now that it was brought to his attention, he realized that his children looked almost exactly like Draco Malfoy. "I'm waiting for an explanation, Hermione."

"I can help with that!" Blaise said. "I'll be right back." He exited the room and left them in uncomfortable silence. No one spoke. The tension in the room was as thick as the hair on a gorilla's ass. Hermione turned away from a fuming Ron and took a seat on the other side of the room, across from Draco. He gave her a small smile that she didn't return.

Blaise came back in. A house elf pushing a television and a DVD player on a cart followed close behind him. He set it all up, brushed the creases from his purple tux and left in a hurry, closing the door quietly behind him.

"I happen to come across some surveillance tapes from a Muggle clinic that date a few years back. We'll get to those in a bit. First, I need to give some back ground information."

Everyone looked around at one another curiously, except for Hermione, who just glared at Blaise with murder in her eyes. She wanted to attack him and rip out his tongue before he could ruin everything. "I hate you! I wish you would die!" she thought to herself. 

"Many years ago, when they were first married, Draco and Pansy were trying very hard to conceive a child. They tried everything; saw numerous Healers at the wizarding hospitals around the world- still nothing. Finally, after all their magical options had been depleted, they sucked up their pride and went to a Muggle fertility clinic."

"You went to a MUGGLE clinic?" Ron asked, laughing. "I'd pay to see that!"

"Pay with what, you broke ass bastard?" Draco said.

Ron opened his mouth to give a snappy come back but Blaise interrupted. "ANYHOW!" he said, rolling his eyes. "They kept his sperm frozen there at the clinic for use in the in vitro fertilization process. It wasn't until a few years later that they finally managed to conceive."

"Little Pureblood sperm-sicles?" Neville asked. "Now I've heard of everything!"

"What the hell does this have to do with Granger?" Pansy asked. She was embarrassed by all this talk of her not being able to conceive. "What did she do? Steal Draco's sperm and impregnate herself?" She laughed like this was the most ludicrous thing in the world.

"That is PRECISELY what she did!" Blaise said and Hermione tried unsuccessfully to become invisible.


	6. Surveilance and Sweaters

  
Author's notes: Blaise shows proof of Hermione's crimes and Pansy is exposed!  


* * *

"She did what?" Draco asked and jumped to his feet. He was a mixed brew of emotions: shock, anger, disbelief and a tad bit excited and happy. He looked over at Hermione who refused to lift her eyes from the floor.

"She stole a uniform, impersonated a doctor, broke into the clinic and took personal medical records, bribed the receptionist, who happens to be a friend of hers, pilfered Draco's frozen sperm, impregnated herself, lied about who the father was and..."

Ron was aghast, as was the entire room. "My God, Hermione!" he said, "Why the hell would you do all of that?"

"You want to know why?" she screamed, jumping to her feet. 

"I do!" Pansy said, angrily. "I want to know why you would risk everything- your marriage, your career- just to have my husband's child!"

Hermione, her heart racing, knew there was no going back. She was really going to tell them everything. No more secrets, no more hiding. It was frightening but liberating at the same time. "I took Draco's sperm and impregnated myself because I was desperate to have something of his." She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and waited for the inevitable questions to start.

"I don't understand, Hermione," Ginny said. 

Harry understood all to well. "She loves him. That's why she was so desperate to have his child."

"Loves Malfoy?" Ron said laughing. "Hermione would never love MALFOY!" He stopped laughing abruptly when he saw her face. She was staring right at Draco and it was as clear as day. "You DO love him." Ron's legs gave out from under him and he sat down on the sofa, dazed.

Blaise was enjoying himself immensely. It was so damn fun to watch all the drama unfold. The look on Draco's face was priceless. Pansy was furious, Longbottom and Potter were in shock, Ginny was staring off into space and Weasley was on the verge of crying like a girl. It was utter success! And then Draco made it even better.

"Why Granger! If I had only known!" Draco said with a devious grin. "We could have made the babies the old fashioned way; after all, I've wanted to fuck you since fourth year." He had no idea why it came out of his mouth but it did, and he immediately regretted it.

Ron was sputtering in anger. He wanted nothing more than to smash Draco's face in. How could his wife be in love with this asshole whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to make other people miserable?

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You... you. I can't even think of anything horrible enough to call you right now!"

"I can!" Ginny said. "You, Draco Malfoy, are a heartless bastard! This woman just admitted that she loves you. Loves you so much that she was willing to break the law just to have a part of you!"

"And break the law she did!" Blaise said. "When all she had to do was simply ask him." He picked up the television remote and pressed the on button.

"Like she would have just walked up to him and said 'Draco, I've secretly loved you for years. Can I have your babies?' He would have laughed in her face!" Ginny said angrily.

Blaise smiled his all-knowing smile. "Actually, Draco has been in love with Granger for a long time. In fact, he has stalked her, secretly taken photos of her at a topless beach in Spain and even stolen her sweater from the back of a chair in a restaurant when she wasn't looking. He keeps it in his underwear drawer and takes it out numerous times a day to hold it and savor the smell of her lingering perfume." He pressed play. "Talk about being desperate!"

Draco's face was red with embarrassment. "You have no proof of any of that, Zabini." He was trying to avoid looking at Hermione, who had taken her seat directly across from him and was staring at him.

"Oh but I do!" Blaise said, taking Hermione's white cardigan sweater from the box and tossing it at Draco, where in landed in his lap. "I wish I had some popcorn or maybe a box of Milk duds!" he said, taking an empty seat next to Neville. "This first segment is the survaillance footage of Hermione actually stealing Draco's little 'sperm-sicles', as Longbottom dubbed them."

Draco picked up the sweater and instead of giving it back to its owner, he folded it neatly and placed it back in his lap. He knew everyone was watching and thinking he was a weirdo but he didn't care. Hermione was smiling at him strangely and he smiled back, his fingertips resting on the soft fabric of her sweater.

"Can everyone see alright?" Blaise asked over his shoulder.

Hermione had to endure watching herself dressed in a stolen medical coat, sneaking around the fertility clinic taking a man's sperm without his permission. There was a close up of her face that left no doubt that it was her. She heard Ron make a disgusted grunt and her eyes wandered over to see Draco watching her.

She quickly looked away and back at the screen where the scene had changed. It now showed the inside of a library and there was none other than Draco Malfoy hiding behind a shelf, peeking through an empty space. Hermione's eyes grew wider as the surveillance camera panned the room. She saw that it was herself on the other side of the book shelf, sitting at a table reading a book. She recognized the outfit she was wearing and she also recognized the book, much to her astonishment.

"You were spying on me?" she asked him. "On THAT day?"

Draco leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his fingers in a steeple under his chin. "I spied on you lots of days. What's so special about this one?" He was beyond curious. Something was making her very agitated.

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley. Why don't you tell us what is so significant about this day in particular?" Blaise pressed pause and zoomed in on the cover of the book Hermione was reading. "Is this why you're acting all shocked?"

"Fertility Problems and Their Solutions," Pansy read out loud. Her head swung around quickly and she questioned Hermione in an astonished voice. "You were reading about how to impregnate yourself with Draco's sperm and there he was hiding a row over in the shadows, probably thinking about having sex with you?" She gave a snort. "Un-fucking-believable!"

"Pretty coincidental isn't it?" Blaise said. "Just think! If only Draco would have had the balls to approach her instead of stalking her like some pervert, they wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"What would you have had me do?" Draco just about yelled. "Just walk up to her and tell her that every damn day for more than ten years I've thought about her? That I picture myself making love to her so often that I sometimes think I'm going crazy?" He looked over at her. "Should I have come out and told her that I regret never telling her how I felt?"

"Yes you fucking retard! You should have told her everything!" Blaise snapped. "Instead, she ended up with looser Weasley and you married the whore of the century!"

"Hey!" Ron said. "She asked ME to marry HER!"

"That's only because she thought she could never have the one man she longed to be with! She settled for you." Blaise was quickly loosing his composure. "Did you think that she LOVED you? Honestly, Weasley! You're stupidity amazes me sometimes!" He stalked over to Ron and grabbed a hold of his shirt. "You are a worthless pile of cheating shit and Granger deserves better than you!"

"What the hell, Zabini!" Harry shouted, running to Ron's aid. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Blaise tore his eyes from Ron's and seeing Harry, he reluctantly let go. Harry wondered why Blaise would get so upset over something that didn't affect him in the least. 

Hermione looked to Draco questioningly and all he did was shrug his shoulders. He had no clue what this was all about any more than she did.

Blaise gave Ron one last murderous glare and then picking up the remote again, he pressed the off button. "Sorry about that," he said apologetically. "Sometimes I let my killer emotions get the better of me."

He took out another cigar, ran it under his nose, smelling it and then continued as though nothing had happened. "So we now know each others deepest darkest secrets. No one else but those of us in this room will ever find out- unless..."

"Wait!" Neville said. "You didn't tell us what Pansy's secret is!"

Pansy laughed. "I told you," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "That I've done lots of illegal things and there is nothing Zabini could have on me that will make me pay him loads of money. I don't care who knows what I've done!"

"You mean you don't care if everyone in the wizarding world finds out that you steal from high-end retail establishments or that you're in the habit of drugging the drinks of your male AND female friends so you can take them to a flea bag motel and take advantage of them?" Blaise was grinning from ear to ear. "I can understand why that wouldn't matter but what about the times you've taken Polyjuice Potion and pretended to be Narcissa Malfoy so that you could have sex with your father-in-law?"

Draco made a strangled noise in his throat, Neville clutched the velvet drapes to keep from toppling over and everyone else sat in stunned silence.


	7. Gifted

  
Author's notes: The guests receive some strange and confusing gifts.  


* * *

"You slept with my father?" Draco made a face of pure disgust. 

Pansy was mortified that Blaise had announced her secret. "Well..." she wasn't sure what to say. "Oh, come on! Look at the man! He's fine as hell. Who could blame me for wanting to have sex with him?" She was red-faced and suddenly sweating up a storm. "It was well worth it too! He is the best lover I've ever had."

"But he's so old!" Ginny said. "Surely Draco..." 

Pansy turned on to her, anger evident on her face. "Lucius might be old but he's still a sexy beast of a man, and he's a thousand times better in bed than Draco!"

"Hey!" Draco said. "I've never heard you- or any other woman complain before!"

"Please Draco!" Pansy said with a tiny laugh. "After our first year of marriage, I could barely stand to have you touch me. You are a lousy lover with a small penis who only cares about getting yourself off." she rolled her eyes. "Plus, I got sick and tired of being called Hermione in the middle of it all!"

Hermione blushed deeply and averted her eyes to the floor.

"I had to cheat on you all the time because you never satisfied me," Pansy continued. "I've slept with hundreds of men since we've been married including Longbottom, Weasley, Zabini over there, and your father!"

"I..." Neville backed up against the wall. He was sure Malfoy was going to kick the shit out of him for sleeping with his wife. Malfoy..."

Draco looked over at Neville with a crooked smile. "Relax Longbottom, I'm not going to kill you." Draco got up from his chair and walked over to Pansy, who stood to face him. "I want a divorce, you lying, cheating whore."

"No fucking way, Draco!" Pansy said, poking him in the chest with her long red fingernail. "I will never divorce you. I may have cheated on you physically, but you've cheated on me in your mind and your heart since the beginning!" She looked over at Hermione. "I have feelings whether you think so or not, Draco. I loved you and now I find out that you've loved Granger all along? I won't let you free to be with her- ever."

"I WANT a divorce." Draco said through clenched teeth.

"If you think I'll let you go that easily, then you're as stupid as Weasley looks!"

"What the hell!" Ron said. "I'm so sick and tired of..."

"Shut up Weasley," Draco warned.

"I have proof that you are an adulteress, Pansy. The courts will grant me a divorce and better that that, I'll make sure you won't get one fucking knutt of my money!"

"Why are you arguing?" Harry asked. "Pansy, just give him the damn divorce. Malfoy give her some of your money just to shut her the hell up. Go your separate ways and be happy for piss sakes!"

"Well said, Potter," Blaise said and clapped softly. "Of course in order for Draco to be happy, Hermione will have to divorce Weasley and then they can be one happy little family; after all, they do have two children together already."

Ron's face turned so red it looked as though his head was going to explode. "That will never happen. Hermione and I will work out our problems and stay together, won't we, Hermione?"

Hermione looked up from the floor and saw Ron's pleading eyes. She really didn't want to stay with him after what she had learned tonight. He had gambled away all of their money, slept with Pansy of all people, and put her and the children's lives in danger. How could she forgive him? Then there was the fact that Draco, the man she had secretly loved, had admitted that he loved her as well. What should she do?

Draco knew Hermione was struggling with her conscience. She always wanted to do the right thing. She had made vows to stay with Weasley through the good and bad, and it was probably killing her to even think of not honoring her word. "She doesn't have to think about that right now. We have more pressing issues to deal with here, tonight, don't we?"

Hermione gave Draco a grateful smile and he returned it. Never before had she seen him smile so warmly at anyone and it brought tears to her eyes. Right then and there she made up her mind- she wanted to be with him.

"Draco is right," Blaise said. "Where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" He stroked his mustache thoughtfully. "Ah! Yes. I have a proposition for you all." He grinned at them, his shockingly white teeth almost glowing in the firelight. "Well, actually, it's more of a threat."

"I don't how much more I can take," Ginny said. "All these insane secrets and now you're issuing a threat. Let me guess," she pretended to be deep in thought. "You want money from us or you're going to expose us for the lying, stealing, cheating, raping, murdering good for nothings we obviously are?"

"What a great idea, Mrs. Potter!" Blaise said in mock astonishment. "Here I was just going to..."

There was a knock at the door and Blaise paused for a moment in confusion. He decided he would try to ignore it. "Anyway, that is what's going to happen. Either you pay me or I will expose you."

"But I have no money to give you!" Ron said. 

"Then you and your wife will spy for me. There are so many opportunities to blackmail out there!" He rubbed his hands in glee. "For instance, did you know that Oliver Wood..." There was much louder knocking this time and Blaise stalked over, totally annoyed, to the door and wrenched it open. "What?" he screamed at the surprised house elf that was standing there carrying yet another box.

"Begging your pardon sir," it squeaked. "I was told to bring this down to you right away."

"Told by whom?" Blaise asked, his hands shaking as he reached for the box.

The house elf whispered something and everyone in the room strained to hear what it was. Blaise whispered back, not really to the elf, but to himself.

"Up too?" Was all the others caught before Blaise dismissed the elf, shut the door, and turned around looking even more confused.

"What is it?" Draco asked walking over and peering inside. "Presents?" he said incredulously. Pulling one from the box, he read the name on the tag. "Harry Potter."

Harry was quick to catch the gift Draco threw at him. He held it in his hands, turning it over and over. It was quite heavy, wrapped it dark purple shiny paper with a satin ribbon and bow of a lighter purple attached. Harry noticed the look of pure fear on Blaise's face and realized that this was not something he had planned.

Draco passed out the gifts. There was one for each of them- except for Blaise. All were wrapped the same, although they were of different sizes, and some seemed heavier than others. Draco took the empty seat next to Hermione instead of the one across from her. His fingers accidentally brushed the top of her thigh as he sat down and she jumped slightly. 

No one moved to open them. They all sat with them in their laps as if waiting for instructions from Blaise. He was clearly frightened about something. They could tell by the way he kept fiddling with his mustache, picking non-existent lint from his jacket and clearing his throat but not saying anything.

It was too much for Neville to take and he blurted, "Well, aren't you going to tell us to open these?"

Blaise shrugged his shoulders, trying to act as if he was indifferent. "Go right ahead."

Draco slowly removed the ribbon. It was soft and silky and he couldn't help but think about using it to tie Hermione's hands to the bedpost and then licking his way down her naked body, making her moan with want. He put it into his pocket for safe keeping and then looked over at her. Her legs, cased in those sexy fishnet stockings, were crossed, and her foot was shaking to some rhythm only she could hear. He watched as she slipped off the ribbon and bow, putting them on the sofa between them. Draco snatched up the ribbon and put in into his pocket with the other.

"What are you going to do with those?" Hermione asked him, smiling, her eyebrow raised.

"Perhaps later tonight, I'll show you." He reached out and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.

"I look forward to it."

The presents were forgotten as they both leaned in, Draco putting his hand gently on the back of her neck; Hermione resting her's high up on his leg. Their lips were close, so close that he could feel tiny wisps of her sweet breath on his face.

"What the bloody hell is this?" Ron's voice echoed through the room.

Draco closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. Hermione rested her forehead on his, smiling. "Leave it to Ron to ruin the moment," she said.

"Who would give me a knitting needle?" Ron asked, pulling it out of the lavender colored tissue paper and holding it up. "I don't even know how to knit!"

"Well I got something even more bizarre- a brick," Neville said. He turned it over in his hands, felt the weight of it and then put it back. "What did you get, Harry?" He asked, putting his present down on the table.

Harry pulled a very shiny and extremely sharp dagger from his brightly colored box. "A knife." He held it up and the firelight glinted off the steel blade. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Is there a turkey around here that needs carving?"

"Yes, he's sitting to your left," Draco said, pointing at Ron.

"Ha fucking ha, Malfoy. You better watch it or you might just find this knitting needle accidentally jammed up your ass."

"Kindly stay away from my ass, Weasley. Isn't it enough that you've buggered my wife? Do you have to come after my ass as well?" He smirked at Ron, who was brandishing the huge needle, looking as if he wanted nothing better than to kill Draco with it. "Put that away before you accidentally trip over your giant feet and impale yourself."

"What the shit?" Pansy said, taking out a piece of piano wire and holding it up. She looked around for answers that no one had to give. 

"What's in your box?" Draco asked Hermione. 

"I'm afraid to find out."

"Would you like me to open it for you?" He reached for it before she could answer. He tore off the paper and lifted the lid. "What are these?" he asked.

Hermione took the small item from Draco's fingers and frowned. "A book of matches from something called the 'Hot Sands Hotel' in Egypt." Hermione turned it over and read, "Honeymoon Suite."

Blaise's head snapped up but he said nothing, instead, he headed across the room to the window.

"What are matches?" Draco asked.

"You pull one off, strike it on the back here and it makes fire."

"Clever muggles! What WILL they think of next?" Draco took the book of matches and looked them over. "A hot gift for a hot woman." He handed the matches back, and when she reached for them; he took her hand and pulled her towards him. "Playing with fire is dangerous."

"So is playing with me."

"Who said anything about PLAYING with you?"

"What mysterious article did you receive?" Hermione asked, suddenly noticing that everyone was staring at them. She picked up Draco's gift and quickly opened it. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "A gun?"

Everyone stood and rushed over to the sofa. 

"Is it loaded?" Harry asked.

Hermione checked the revolver. "Five live rounds, one empty chamber."

"This is so damn weird! Why would anyone want to give me a muggle weapon? I don't know how to use it!" Draco took the gun. "What's this?" he asked.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Harry and Hermione screamed.

Draco jumped and dropped the gun on the floor. "What? What did I do?"

"That's the safety, Malfoy! Never touch that unless you want to kill someone, and since no one in this room wants to die, I suggest you just put it back in the box." Harry was clutching his heart in fright. "We don't want any accidents do we?"

Draco decided instead to put the revolver into his jacket pocket. "Has everyone opened their gifts?" he asked, looking around.

"Everyone except Ginny," Neville said.

"What are you waiting for? Granger to grow some tits?" Pansy asked, with a mean laugh. "You'll be waiting for eternity."

"Shut up, Pansy. The only reason your's are big is because Longbottom paid for you to have them magically enlarged!" Draco sneered. "Yeah, I know all about that, don't look so surprised."

"Open it Gin," Ron said, trying to ignore the bickering taking place next to him.

 

Ginny, who hadn't even started to unwrap her gift, hesitantly removed the paper, ribbon and bows and as everyone watched, she lifted a tiny bottle from the tissue paper. The liquid inside was a violent green and had the consistency of olive oil. She pulled out the stopper and sniffed it. "It smells like death," she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Does anyone know what this is?" 

"Let me see," Hermione said and Ginny placed the small crystal vial in her hand. "I might be wrong but it looks and smells like Manitcore venom." She handed it to Draco, who had always gotten top marks in Potions.

"That's exactly what it is," he said placing the stopper back in tightly. "Who would give you a vial of deadly venom?" He looked around for Blaise, who was staring out the window at the approaching storm. A flash of lightning lit up the side of his troubled face. "Zabini, what is this all about?" 

Blaise slowly turned around. "I assure you, Malfoy; I had nothing to do with this."

"What do you mean?"

"This was not in my plan."

"Then if you didn't send these, then who did?"

Blaise shut the drapes and turned from the window. "What does it matter?" he said, strolling over to the fireplace. He picked up the poker and moved the logs around, sending glowing embers into the air, which thankfully, were safely behind a screen. He put the poker down and gave them a fake loving smile. "Now tell me, what will it be? Will you give me what I want, or will you force me to expose you to the world?"

Draco got up and walked courageously over to Blaise. "I will not tolerate being forced to do something I don't want to do, and neither will they." Turning away from a seething Blaise, he addressed the room. "I suggest we kill Zabini and thereby rid ourselves of this blackmailer. We bury him, burn all the evidence, and then walk away- simple."

Blaise's eyes were huge. "You wouldn't!"

"You've made plenty of enemies here tonight, Zabini. I'm sure more than one of use would love to murder you. I know I would." Draco took the revolver from his pocket and aimed it at Blaise's head. 

Blaise was about to plead for his life, when there was another knock on the door. 

"Answer it," Draco said after a moment of intense silence.

Blaise sighed in relief and hurried to answer the door. "What is it now?" he asked the purple clad elf.

"I'm to show the guests to their rooms."

"Huh?" Blaise asked in confusion. This was not in his plan either and he was becoming increasingly frightened by the second.

"Rooms? To sleep in? For the night?" The elf was looking at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Riiiightt," Blaise said. "We will all be staying here this evening and maybe by the morning, you will have realized what a mistake it would be to go against me. Remember, I have evidence. Not all of it was shown here tonight. Some of it is hidden where only I and one other person can find it. Should anything happen to me, that person is instructed to take that evidence and expose you all." He was trying to make it seem as though this was all his doing. Something strange was going on and until he found out what it was, he had to make them think he was behind it all.

"Now I will be showing you to your rooms. Please follow me," the elf walked away and slowly, everyone filed from the room and headed for the stairs as lightening flashed, thunder rumbled and rain poured from the dark night sky.


	8. Murder Most Foul

  
Author's notes: Who is it that has been murdered and who the hell is behind it all?  


* * *

'EVERY MURDERER IS PROBABLY SOMEBODY'S OLD FRIEND.'  
~ AGATHA CHRISTIE

 

"I don't know about spending the night here. Obviously something strange is going on," Ron said to Harry as they started up the stairs. "Why would someone give us all lethal weapons as gifts if that someone didn't want one of us to use them?"

"Afraid someone wants to kill you, Weasley?" Draco asked from behind them. He grinned at Ron as he placed his hand on the small of Hermione's back to help her up the stairs. "I'd do it myself, but I don't like to get my hands dirty."

"I'd sleep with one eye open if I were you, Malfoy," Ron retorted. "And get your damn hand off my wife."

Hermione reached around and held Draco's hand where it was. She looked at Ron with total malice. "The minute I found out that you gambled away everything we owned and that you slept with Pansy, I considered our marriage dissolved." She tilted her head and smiled sweetly at Draco. "I've found myself a REAL man." Turning back to Ron, she slapped him lightly on the cheek. "Reap the repercussions of your actions," she hissed, looking into his eyes with hate.

Draco smirked at Ron as Hermione grabbed his hand and pushed past them on the stairs.

"I've lost her forever, haven't I?" Ron asked Harry as they continued their climb.

"What did you expect? For her to hang around after what you've done?" Ginny said.

"But you and Harry have done horrible things and it looks like you've forgiven each other!"

Ginny frowned at her brother. "I haven't decided one way or the other what I'm going to do about Harry and I'm sure he hasn't either. Now is not the time or place to make snap decisions about the future."

"She's right. When we get out of here and are able to discuss things rationally, I'm sure we can come to an agreement." He was shocked and disturbed by what she had done but he loved her with all his heart and was sure they could work everything out.

They heard giggling behind them and turning their heads, they saw Pansy all in a flutter as Neville whispered in her ear and kissed her neck. He was walking closely behind her, his groin pressed into her ass.

"Just disgusting," Ron said. "Neville of all people? What does she see in him?"

"You sound more than a little jealous, Weasley," Blaise said as they passed him on the top landing. "Wish you were Longbottom right now, don't you? Does it anger you to know that she prefers him to you? How about the fact that your wife would rather be with Malfoy than to suffer another night with you?" He chuckled, looking very amused. "Take heart, maybe someone will kill you tonight and put you out of your misery."

"Just shut up Zabini. I wish someone would you kill YOU!"

"Hear that everyone?" Blaise said. "If I should be murdered this evening, remember that it was Weasley who said that he wished I would die."

They followed the elf down the hall towards the west wing of the Manor. They passed many closed doors along the way. Every one of them was on the same side of the corridor. The opposite wall was covered in moving pictures, mirrors and faded tapestries. It looked as if they were headed for the very end of the hallway.

"By the way Pansy, I just love the material you used for the tuxes the Elves are wearing," Harry said with a repressed grin. "It's a lovely shade of purple."

Pansy looked at Harry, confused and pushed Neville away from her neck in annoyance. "What are you talking about, Potter?"

"I'm talking about the outfits you sewed for the House Elves."

"Me? Sew?" Pansy laughed uproariously. "As if!"

Harry and Neville glanced at one another. "But the Elf that answered the door when we arrived said that his Mistress had made the outfit for him," Neville said. "And since this is your house..."

Pansy was about to say something when the elf came to an abrupt halt before a door. 

"This room is for Mr. Longbottom," it said, opening the door and turning the lights on with a snap of its finger.

Neville looked around unsure of whether to go in or not.

"Go in please," the elf said. "Sir will find everything very comfortable."

Neville went in and the others saw just a flash of his frightened face as the elf closed the door.

They walked a few steps and came to the room where Pansy was told she would be staying. Harry thought this was very peculiar, seeing that this was her house. Why was she staying in a room that wasn't her usual one?

They moved on after Pansy went inside and came to Ron's room. "I'm not staying in there alone!" he said, sticking his head in the door. "Hermione?"

"I am not sleeping in the same room with you ever again, Ron."

"Harry?"

"Pardon, sirs but I have strict instructions that everyone must be having their own rooms." The elf opened the door wider and just about pushed Ron inside. He tried to protest being man-handled, but the door was slammed in his face.

"I'm curious," Ginny asked. "Who is giving you these 'instructions'? Clearly Zabini doesn't know what's going on." She received no answer and the elf pressed on down the hall. Ginny looked over at Draco. "This is your house, are you the one telling the elf what to do?"

Draco raised his eyebrow. "Who said..."

"This is your room for the night," the elf said to Ginny. "I'm hoping you find it to your liking."

"Yes, I'm sure I will," she said, a little hesitantly. "Will Harry be next door?" Her eyes were very large and filled with terror by the thought of sleeping in a room next to Blaise.

"Yes Miss. I am instructed to place Mr. Potter in the room beside your's."

"Thank Merlin!" she said and went inside.

Harry went to his room without a word and shut the door. He needed to think and was thankful for the silence. This whole situation was bizarre, to say the least. So many things did not add up! He walked over to the large desk in the corner of his lavishly decorated room and took out a pad of paper that was monogrammed with a fancy 'P'. He located a peacock quill, dipped it in the ink well, and started to make a list of everything that was bothering him.

 

***

"This will be your room," the elf said.

The three people left looked at one another. "Whose room is it?" Hermione asked. "You didn't say.'

"It is being for Mr. Malfoy and Mrs. Weasley, of course!"

"They get to share a room?" Blaise asked, in shock. "But why? Who the fucking hell is giving you orders?"

The elf gave Blaise a devious smile. "Why? It is considered a repayment for a kindness. Who? I cannot tell."

"You little shit! I should kick your ass, you dumb fucking bastard! How dare you not tell me!"

"If you so much as lay one finger on him, Zabini, I will hurt you," Hermione said. "He is just following orders!"

"But from who, damn it! I just don't understand what the fuck is happening here!" He punched the wall. "I planned every detail for months and it was all going fine!" He was furious and started to rant and rave. "I should have known something was up when Weasley showed up! I never sent him an invitation! Who in the bloody hell would do this?" He paced the carpeted floor. "They want me dead, it's obvious. Everyone got a gift except for me. Everyone here has a lethal weapon at their disposal and I know everyone here would just love to get rid of me! Well, I'm not going to let that happen- no fucking way!"

Draco put his hand on Blaise's arm, stopping him in mid step. "Weasley wasn't supposed to be here tonight?"

Blaise looked at Draco as if he were another planet. "I didn't invite him, did you?"

"No. I thought about it. You know what kind of dirt I have on him but I thought Hermione would be pissed at me. I didn't want her to think that I exposed him just so I could be with her."

"Well, someone else took your discarded plan, and decided to put it in motion. The Elf said this person is letting you and Granger share a room as a repayment for a kindness. Do you know what the hell he's talking about?"

Draco thought for a minute. "I haven't the faintest idea. I don't make a habit of being very kind, do I?"

"Well, I don't know what's going on here but there IS one thing I DO know," Blaise said, taking the revolver from Draco's pocket. "My life is in danger and it's kill or be killed as far as I'm concerned." He left Draco and Hermione standing in front of their door and followed the Elf to his room, which was the last one. He gave them a salute and went inside, slamming the door behind him. The Elf snapped his fingers and disappeared with a pop.

"Shall we go inside?" Hermione said, suddenly shy.

Draco closed the door quietly and looked around the room. It was huge and richly decorated in deep red and dark walnut. Very expensive paintings adorned the walls and in the corner was a lighted display case that contained various vases, sculptures and jeweled cases.

"Wow!" Hermione said breathlessly. "I've never seen a more beautiful room!" She walked over to the huge bed and saw that there were night clothes laid out for them. A pale pink silk nightgown with spaghetti straps for her, and dark blue satin bottoms for Draco. "I think I'm going to change into this, these stocking are killing me." 

She picked up the gown and headed for the bathroom. After locking herself in, she leaned on the door and closed her eyes. Her heart was pounding with fear at the very thought of having to sleep in the same bed with Draco. This was her dream come true but it had a nightmarish quality to it. what if she snored or talked in her sleep? "Oh! God!" she thought, "what if I drool on him!"

Draco took off his tux, threw it into a crimson velour chair next to the bed and pulled on the pajama bottoms. They felt so smooth next to his skin- it was like pure heaven. He went over to the window, lifted back the heavy drapes and looked out across the wet, fog covered grounds. Lightning was still flashing but the thunder was far off in the distance.

He thought about Hermione and his stomach flipped. She had been the subject of his obsession for so many years and now here she was- about to climb into bed with him. The thought was terrifying! What if what Pansy said was true? What if he did have a small penis and was a horrible lover? He imagined Hermione pointing and laughing at his teeny weeny. Pulling back the elastic waist band of his bottoms, he looked at his package. "Pansy is full of shit!" he said, "I'm very well endowed!"

"What ARE you doing?" Hermione said coming out of the bathroom, smiling and a little paler than usual.

Draco let go and the elastic hit his bare skin with a loud snap. He looked at Hermione, the breath leaving his body. She was gorgeous! The pale pink of the gown was so- there was no other word for it- pretty. He had a hard time tearing his eyes away from the plunging neckline that hugged the tops of her breasts, inviting his tongue for a lick, kiss and suck session. "You look... um...

"You look 'um' as well," Hermione said with a grin. In reality, he looked delicious standing there with his bare chest hanging out, and she longed to scrape her nails over the muscles and pinch his hard little nipples. She could feel her face grow red and she suddenly wanted to jump in the bed and pull the covers over her head.

"Er... shall we retire for the evening?" Draco asked, motioning toward the bed. He mentally kicked himself for sounding so damn stupid. Retire? what was he 80 years old? Why was he so nervous?

I... I guess," Hermione stammered and pulled back the blankets and silk sheets. She sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from him, closed her eyes and willed herself not to panic. Taking a deep breath, she swung her legs into the bed, lay back on the mound of fluffy pillows and pulled the covers up to her chin.

Draco turned off the lights and climbed in beside her, careful not to get too close. They lay there in the darkness, a very large space between them, staring at the ceiling.

Suddenly, through the silence, they heard the unmistakable sounds of two people fucking. It was very loud and sounded as if they were right in the same room.

"Oh! Neville! Yes!" Pansy moaned loudly. "In the ass! Yessss! Harder!"

Draco's body stiffened and Hermione gasped in shock. Hermione and Draco lay there, feeling very uncomfortable.

"Damn Pansy. You're ass is so fucking tight!" Neville said, grunting and groaning. "Yeah baby! You like that don't you?" 

"Shut the hell up! I'm trying to get some damn sleep!" Ron yelled at the top of this voice. 

That was enough to break the silence and both Draco and Hermione burst out laughing. Their merriment was brought to an abrupt halt, however when a terrified scream echoed through the corridor.

"That was Ginny!" Hermione said, jumping up.

"Wait!" Draco said, running after her as she threw open the door and rushed out of the room. 

Doors opened and they all spilled out into the hall, frantic looks on their faces. Harry headed straight to Ginny's room next door and everyone followed.

Ron flipped on the lights and there was Ginny, sitting up in the middle of her bed, her eyes as big as saucers, her mouth trembling with fear. "Someone was in my room!" she cried.

"What? Did they hurt you? Who was it?" Harry asked, throwing himself on the bed and taking her into this arms.

"Are you sure you weren't just dreaming?" Ron asked.

"Dreaming? How could I even get to sleep with all the noise?" Ginny said, shooting Pansy and Neville a disgusted look. "I was lying here, with the pillow over my head, trying to block out the moans and grunts when I felt someone touch me. They were breathing heavily, hovering over me and touching me on the arm. Caressing me.

"Someone TOUCHED you?" Harry said, angrily.

"Yes, and when I finally got the courage to take the pillow away, I saw... I saw..."

"Damn it! What did you see?" Draco said, excitement in his voice.

"I don't know! I was a silhouette moving through the room. It seemed to float and then it just disappeared into that wall over there!"

Neville, Draco and Ron went to investigate. On the wall was a very big painting of a beautiful black woman in a chair. She looked down at them haughtily, fingering a pearl necklace that was around her slender neck. The painting was the shape and size of a door, maybe a little larger. Draco, put his fingers behind the gold frame and pulled. It swung open on its hinges and the three men poked their heads into the darkness behind it.

"It's a tunnel of some sort," Draco said. "Should we see where it goes?"

"Are you out of your fucking mind, Malfoy?" Ron said. "I'm not going in there! Who the hell knows what's on the other end!"

"Maybe it's a way out of here," Neville said.

"That's a possibility," Hermione said, "I think we should go."

"I agree, "Harry said, helping Ginny out of the bed and handing her dressing gown. 

"Well I'm staying right here," Ron said, plopping himself down into a chair and crossing his arms.

"Fine, you do that, coward!" Hermione said. She picked up a candle from the dresser, lit it with her matches and walked through into the tunnel. Draco quickly followed.

Neville, Pansy, Harry and Ginny left Ron sitting alone and entered the secret passage.

They walked down steep stairs and then it leveled off for a bit in a dirt path It was very dark, musty smelling and rat infested. More than once someone tripped or fell over a scurrying critter. Finally, they came to more stairs; this time they led upwards.

"I'm scared," Pansy whispered as they came to another hidden door.

"We all are."

"What do you think we'll find?" Harry asked softly.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it won't be good."

Draco pushed the door open; Hermione stepped in and held the candle up.

"Maybe Blaise..." Ginny started to say when Hermione screamed.

Everyone pushed Hermione out of the way and ran into the room. Harry turned on the lights and they all stood there in complete horror at the sight that greeted them. There, hanging from the ceiling beam, was Blaise Zabini, his naked, blood covered body swinging grotesquely. Knife wounds covered his legs and chest and he had clearly been shot in the head.


	9. Slaughter House

  
Author's notes: The investigation begins and someone disappears.  


* * *

"Look at all the damn blood!" Pansy said, her face had drained of all color, and her arms were wrapped around her stomach as if trying to hold her dinner inside. 

"Someone cut him down," Ginny moaned. 

"Are you crazy? I'm not touching the body!" Draco said. "That's evidence."

"Well, we can't just leave him swinging there like that!" Ginny said, looking around for a chair to stand on. She pulled the wooden chair away from the writing desk. "Harry, help me." She balanced on her tip toes. "Take him by the legs and lift him up so that I can get the rope from around his neck."

"Ginny," Harry said, grabbing Blaise's legs. "Maybe Malfoy's right. The body is evidence and I don't think we should be touching it."

Ginny ignored him and continued struggling to get the rope off. "I can't get it. He's too heavy."

"Here," Neville said, bending over and retrieving something shiny from the floor. "Cut him down with this."

It was the knife Harry had received earlier as a gift. It was sticky with blood and the blade was oddly bent.

"Damn it Longbottom!" Draco said. "That's probably the murder weapon and now your fingerprints are all over it!"

"Neville dropped it on the floor and wiped his hands on his pants. "Sssorry!" He stuttered. "I didn't think..."

"You never do, do you?" Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. "You have got to be the dumbest fucking man I've ever met!"

"Shut up, Draco," Pansy said. 

"All of you shut up!" Ginny said, sawing at the rope. It suddenly snapped and Blaise's body came tumbling down on top of Harry, who fell to the floor.

"Get him off me!" Harry moaned, kicking and pushing the heavy body. "I'm suffocating!"

Hermione and Neville rushed to his aid. They rolled Blaise off and he landed with a loud thump on the floor next to a hyperventilating Harry.

"Are you al..." Hermione started to say. She caught something out of the corner of her eye. "The revolver!" she said and crawled over to the bed.

"Don't touch it!" Draco warned. 

"Hand me a pillow case," Hermione said. Draco stripped one off a fluffy pillow and handed it to her. 

"Be careful," he said. "It might go off."

Hermione gently wrapped her hand in the silky black material and slowly lifted the gun from under the bed. She turned and sat, her back against the brass frame, the revolver lying in her lap cradled in the pillow case. "Who wants it?" 

Somewhere in the distance was a low rumble of thunder as another storm approached. Harry picked it up and looked it over. "The safety is off and," He checked the chamber. "Two shots have been fired."

"There were only five bullets, remember?" Hermione asked, rubbing her temples. "Are you saying there are only three left?" Her head was throbbing and why did she suddenly smell flowers? Was she loosing her mind?

"Yes. So we can plainly see that one shot hit... hit Zabini in the head." Harry gulped, closed his eyes, took a huge breath and managed to get himself under control. "Either he fired at the killer or he has been shot more than once."

Every one slowly turned their heads, and looked at the poor bloody body of Blaise lying face down on the hard wood floor. 

"Well, I'm not checking!" Pansy said, shaking her head violently. "No way!"

"Malfoy?" Harry asked. "He was your friend."

Draco did not want to examine a dead person, but seeing as everyone else were pussies, he had no choice. "Fine, whatever." He tried to act as though it were no big deal, but as he turned Blaise over and saw that his brains were leaking through the hole in his head, he almost shit his pants.

"Er... hand me something so I get some of this blood off," he said, praying that the contents of his stomach stayed where they belonged. Hermione tossed him the other pillow case. The blood was starting to coagulate, making it difficult to wipe away. It was only smearing. "So far all I see are knife wounds. They're on his chest and his legs." They were very deep and he supposed the blade was bent from hitting bone. 

Draco turned the body back over. "There is nothing on this side. The wounds are only on the front." He lifted the rope from his neck. It had been looped so tightly that it had cut into his skin. He cleared the bloody mess from Blaise's purplish blue face. His eyes were protruding almost comically, and his tongue was almost bitten in half.

"Who the hell would do this?" Pansy asked. "It's overkill!"

"Well, Potter had the knife, didn't he?" Draco asked.

"Are you accusing me of doing this?" Harry motioned towards the mutilated corpse. "I have no idea how that dagger got in here! I left it on the night stand next to the bed."

"You were all alone, Potter. You could have snuck out of your room, went down the hall, killed Blaise and then made your way through the secret passage and into your wife's room."

"That's right!" Pansy interjected. "Ginny said the intruder was caressing her and who the hell would do that other than her husband?"

"I DID NOT KILL ANYONE!" Harry said angrily. "While I was in the bathroom, anyone could have come in and taken that knife." He glared at Draco hatefully. "And you, Malfoy, had that gun! Maybe you killed him!"

"Ah!" Draco said, shaking his head and waving his finger. "I was with Hermione the whole time and besides, Blaise took the gun from me right before he went into his room."

Everyone looked at Hermione for confirmation. "It's true. Blaise wanted the gun for protection because he knew someone wanted to kill him." She watched Harry wipe off the revolver and put it in the waistband of his pajamas. "Draco never left the room, it wasn't him."

Harry's face seemed to go slack. "Then who could it be? I have a hard time believing that ANY of us could be capable of something this violent."

Draco laid the body gently back onto the floor, retrieved the sheet from the bed and covered him up. "Let's have a look around the room, shall we? Maybe we can find some clues."

"You fancy yourself a great detective, Malfoy?" Harry asked.

Draco winked at him. "I've been known to have a keen eye for detail and I'm sure with your courage in the face of danger, and Granger's intellect, we can figure out what the hell went on in here."

"Are you saying I can't contribute anything to this little murder mystery?" Pansy huffed.

"No," Draco said, not bothering to even look at her. "You can go down to the kitchens and see if the elves heard or maybe seen anything out of the ordinary."

"I'm not going anywhere alone!"

"I'll go with you, Pansy," Neville said.

Draco chuckled. "Just don't be taking any detours in hall closets to touch each other's special places- if you know what I mean." He gave them a disgusted frown. "Get back up here as quickly as possible, there happens to be a crazed killer on the loose."

Pansy and Neville gave each other nervous glances. Neville took her hand and went to the door. He stopped when he found that it was locked from the inside. "That means the killer had to have used the secret passage, doesn't it?"

"Eureka! You solved the fucking case, Longbottom!" Draco said sarcastically.

Neville, his face red with embarrassment and anger, turned the lock and drug Pansy from the room, slamming the door behind him.

The four left in the room walked around, searching for anything that might shed some light on what had happened. 

"Look!" Ginny shouted. "I've found something!"

They rushed over to find her pointing at a place midway up the wall where a bullet was clearly lodged. 

"This wall is straight across from the bed and next to the entrance to the passage," Draco said. "Blaise was probably lying in bed when the killer came in."

"He sat up, shot, missed, and then the killer could have pounced on him," Hermione added.

"He wrestled the gun from Zabini, maybe stabbing him in the process." Harry looked over at the bed. "But there wasn't any blood on the bed." He walked across the floor, thinking very hard. "The only blood was directly under the hanging body." He stopped next to the drying pool. "There are a few spatters on the walls with brain matter and tiny splinters of skull, but that's normal."

"The killer might have wrestled the gun from him, maybe knocked him out with the butt or something," Ginny turned to Draco. "Did you notice any other wound to his head other than the gunshot?"

"I really didn't look at his head. His brains were kind of oozing out and..."

Ginny went over, knelt down and looked. "His head is split open in the back. That and the hole in his temple seem to be the only wounds."

"So," Hermione said, pacing, her hands clasped behind her back. "The killer knocked him out and then the evidence would suggest that he was hung first and then sliced up. Am I correct?"

"But then when was he shot?" Draco asked. "It had to have been before he was strung up."

Harry took the revolver from his pants and turned it over and over in his hand, thinking. "He was knocked out, we know that. The strange thing is that he had to have been standing when he was shot because of the height of the spatter."

"You don't suppose that he was forced to shoot himself?" Hermione asked, horrified. "And then the killer strung him up and cut him to ribbons?" She looked around at everyone. "What kind of sick crazy person would do something like that?" She thought she saw Draco flinch a little but perhaps it was just her imagination.

They were all silently contemplating what Blaise must have gone through when there was a flash of lightening and an earsplitting boom of thunder. All the lights in the house suddenly went out, plunging them into total darkness.

***

Neville and Pansy made quickly their way down the hall. They just wanted to get to the kitchens and back up to with everyone else as fast as they could.

"Do you think Malfoy had anything to do with what happened to Blaise?" Neville asked, his voice barely over a whisper. "He's the only one who I think would be capable of doing something like that."

"You heard him, he didn't have the gun. Besides, he would never have the balls to kill anyone." Pansy gave a low chuckle. "Everyone thinks Draco is some hard core bastard but he's really a big coward."

"Did you hear that?" Neville asked, holding out his hand and stopping Pansy.

"I didn't hear anything."

"Shhh... It's coming from in there." He pointed towards Ginny's room. "You don't think the killer..."

There was a thump and a muffled scream. Pansy clutched Neville and they froze, afraid to move a muscle.

"We should really go and check it out," Neville said, trying hard to convince himself that he believed what he said. "We left Ron in there. What if the killer has him?"

"I don't give a flying fuck if Weasley's being butchered by a killer clown right now. I'm not going in there!" She was grasping his arm so tightly that her long red nails were digging into his flesh. "I don't want to die."

Neville was actually a little disgusted that she was such a bloody coward. "Suit yourself, Pansy, but I'm going to have a look. Ron is my friend and I'm sure he'd do the same for me."

"If it makes you feel better, go right ahead and think that. Weasley cares only about himself- and maybe Potter. If you ask me, I've always thought those two were sweet on each other."

"You disappoint me, Pansy."

"Seems I disappoint a lot of people."

Neville rolled his eyes, shook her grip from his arm and slowly and cautiously made his way to the door. He gave Pansy a withering look from over his shoulder as he grasped the door knob, turned it and opened the door a crack.

"Hello?" he called in a shaky voice, sticking his head inside. "OH MY GOD!" he said, flinging the door open wide and rushing inside.

"What? What is it?" Pansy asked on the verge of hysterics. She started forward but stopped. "Neville?" No answer. "NEVILLE!"

"There's blood everywhere!" he said.

"Is it Weasley?" she asked, finally getting up the courage to move towards the room. She walked inside and stopped dead in her tracks. There was blood splashed everywhere; the floor, the walls, the furniture. "It looks like a slaughter house!" She said, turning around and around. "Where is Weasley?"

"I don't..." 

Just then the lights went out.


	10. Dark and Light

  
Author's notes: The guests have a frightful time stumbling around in the dark.  


* * *

A/N: I had a lot more planned for this chapter- tons more clues, but it sort of took on a life of its own and I had fun with them in the dark. Next chapter, I promise. 

 

"Hermione, do you still have those matches?" Draco's voice said from the darkness somewhere next to her.

"I did, but I put them down when we came in." She tried to remember which way the entrance to the secret passage was, but in the blackness, there was no way to tell; everything was turned around.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Harry said. "Who's this?"

"That's my hand you're trying to hold, Potter. In case you're wondering, I don't swing that way."

Harry removed his hand quickly, glad that Draco couldn't see his blushing face. "Even if you did 'swing' that way, you're not my type, Malfoy."

"And what type is that, Potter? Short and stupid with an Irish accent? Me Mam gave me my first blowjob right there when we were visiting the Blarney Stone, and then she took me straight home and made me some potato soup! Later, we went hunting for Leprechauns to molest." Draco mimicked in a very good Irish accent. "Finnigan! Yuck! What were you thinking Potter?"

"I'd shut up if I were you, Malfoy," Harry warned. "I have a gun remember?"

"Is that a threat, Potter?"

"Would you two stop the damn arguing?" Ginny said. "This is not the time nor the place to be having a row!" She squinted in the dark. "Hermione can try and find those matches?"

Hermione put her hands out in front of her, turned the way she believed she should go and slowly walked forward. "Ow!" she said as she bumped into a piece of furniture, stubbing her toe. She took a few baby steps forward, met no obstacle and so continued on her way. "I think I know where I'm going. If I'm not mis..." She slipped in something, and crashed to the floor, the back of her head smacking the hard floor with a sickening thud.

"Hermione?" Draco said. "Are you alright? Where the bloody hell are you?" he asked, feeling his way in the darkness towards where he thought she was. "I wish my fucking wand worked!" he said angrily. "Stupid fucking Blaise and his stupid fucking bright ideas! I can't believe he disabled our damn wands! He walked forward a few more steps. "Hermione? Answer me damn it!"

His foot met something solid and he bent down. His heart was pounding fiercely in his chest. He had a crazy feeling that this was the dead body and he DID NOT want to put his hands in Blaise's leaking brains. 

"Did you find her?" Ginny's voice floated out from the darkness somewhere close by.

"I found something," he said, reaching out a shaking hand. He expected to feel the bloody sheet beneath his fingers, and was relieved to feel Hermione's nightgown instead. "It's her," he said. "Hermione?" He shook her lightly. "I think she slipped in the blood and hit her head because she's not moving."

"Is she breathing?" Harry asked, panic evident in his voice.

Draco leaned his head down and put his ear to her chest. He was almost crying with joy when he heard her heart beating and felt her take a shallow breath. He felt his way to her face and gently kissed her on the lips. "She's alive." He put his arms under  
her neck and legs and lifted her. "We need to get out of here," he said. 

Suddenly there was terrifying screaming and the sound of glass breaking.

"That's Pansy!" Draco said.

Everyone turned towards the sound, clutching each other in fear.

***

 

"I hate the dark!" Pansy said, shivering and gripping Neville's arm so hard it was cutting off the circulation. "Don't you?"

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm afraid of everything, remember?" Neville was shaking in his slippers. Clearly someone else had been killed, and more than likely, that killer was probably still in this room with them. He was scared to death but knew he had to protect Pansy. He had done courageous things before, hadn't he?

"What do we do?" she asked.

He thought for a moment. "The door is still open. We can feel our way over and then once we're out in the hall, we can find the others- or maybe we should just go back through the secret passage?"

"I am not going in that tunnel again! There are rats in there!"

"Well there's a damn murderer in HERE, Pansy!" he said in an angry whisper. "Take your damn pick."

"Let's just get out into the hallway and then we can go from there," she said, in a pleading voice. "The killer is probably hiding in the secret passage waiting to cut our heads off or something."

Neville thought she was right. They had heard the killer just moments before they came into the room. Where did he or she disappear to? The only probable answer was the secret passage. "You're right, let's go out the door."

They managed to get to the wall and started feeling their way towards the door. The only sound was their breathing and the pounding of blood in their ears. Their fingers and hands brushed over paintings and shelves, and Pansy was feeling her way across a huge smooth mirror when Neville stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait!" Neville whispered, holding Pansy back with his hand. "Do you hear something?"

Pansy tried to concentrate. "I don't hear anything."

"Maybe it was my imagination," Neville said, praying he was right.

They went a few more shuffled steps and then froze. This time there was no mistaking it; there was definitely someone or something coming into the room. They could hear its footsteps and its heavy breathing.

"What is it?" Pansy squeaked, her voice hovering on the border of hysterics.

"I don't know," Neville said. "Shh. Just be quite and try not to move." He held her against the wall. The sound came closer and Neville's heart raced faster. He knew he was going to have to do something- but what? 

It came into the room and both Pansy and Neville closed their eyes tightly and tried to stay still. Pansy, tears of fear sliding down her face, gripped Neville's hand like a vice. There was a sound like something being dropped, and then her other hand that was clutching her nightgown, was suddenly licked. 

She jumped in shock and fright, screaming at the top of her lungs. What ever it was jumped on her, sending her flying into the wall. She knocked the mirror off, sending it crashing to the floor where it shattered, showering them with splinters of broken glass. There was a whimpering sound and the intruder fled from the room.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to Diiiiieeeee!" she screamed over and over.

Neville grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth, attempting to shut her up. she was squirming and kicking, trying to bite his hand. 

"Calm down, Pansy!" he said. "It's just the dog!"

She fought a second more and then went limp. Neville slowly removed his hand and Pansy started crying, throwing herself on his chest.

***

"My god! Do you think she's being murdered?" Ginny asked.

"One can only hope," Draco said, sarcastically.

"How can you say that?" Harry asked, disgustedly. "She's the mother of your child!"

"I'm fairly sure that Scorpius is not my child, but one never knows. With his mother being the whore she is, he could be anyone's."

"Just shut the hell up, will you?" Ginny said. "We need to help her!"

There was more screaming, then silence, and to their astonishment, a few seconds later a light appeared in the secret passage.

"Who do you think it is?" Ginny asked, finding Harry in the dark and hiding behind him.

"I don't know, but I'll be ready for them." He pulled out the gun and held it up. Clicking off the safety, he aimed it towards the growing light.

***

"The dog?" Pansy asked, wiping the tears from her eyes. She started to laugh.

"The dog," Neville said laughing along.

Pansy moved away from Neville's embrace and her foot kicked something, sending it skittering a little across the floor. "Did it sound as though that dog dropped something right before it licked me?"

Neville couldn't remember. 

"I'm sure I heard something hit the floor. She got down on her hands and knees and crawled towards the object she had just kicked. "What's this?" she asked, picking up the object and pressing the button on the side.

The room suddenly lit up.

"A flashlight!" Neville said excitedly. "I've seen pictures of those!" 

Pansy turned the light so it flashed right in her eyes. "Kind of bright, don't you think?" she asked, temporarily blinded again.

Neville laughed, glad for the fact that Pansy had broken the mirror and she couldn't see herself right now. Her mascara had run down her face and were now dried black rivers. Her bright red lipstick was smeared across the left side of her face and her hair was bedraggled to say the least.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. She shone the flashlight in his face. "I see nothing..." She caught a glimpse of herself in a broken shard of mirror on the floor. "Oh! I look like death!" She dropped the flashlight and it rolled to Neville's feet.

"You have time to fix you're makeup later," he said, picking it up. He rolled his eyes as Pansy struggled to get the black lines from her face with the spit soaked hem of her nightgown. "Let's go. We need to get back to the others." He walked over and yanked her up from the floor, violently. "In case you've forgotten, Pansy, my love, there is still a killer on the loose; one that could care less if you don't have you're damn eyeliner on right!"

"You can be such an asshole, Longbottom!" Pansy said. "I don't want the others to see me looking like this!"

"It's dark, you idiot! They can't see you! Just keep the light away from yourself and then there will be no chance of them seeing you looking like Cookie the Clown!"

"How dare you! You can't insult me like that!"

"Yes I can, now get you conceited ass down that secret passage!" He grabbed her arm and pushed her into the tunnel. "I'll be right behind you."

Pansy threw off his painful grip. "When we get out of her, Longbottom, I never want to lay eyes on you again!"

"Fine with me."

They walked slowly down the passage, the rats and the vermin scurrying away from the light. More than once Neville had to force Pansy onward. She whimpered every time she saw a spider, and at one time refused to step through a puddle because it might be unsanitary. She was becoming a royal pain in the ass and he wondered now what he had ever seen in her.

Finally, they could see the end of the tunnel and picked up the pace, glad to once more be in the safety of numbers.

***

Harry's aim was steady. He was 'in the zone' as they say. He saw nothing but the light- heard nothing but his calm breathing. He was ready to defend his friends from whatever was coming towards them.

"It's getting closer!" Ginny said, anxiously.

"Fucking shoot now!" Draco yelled.

Harry pulled the trigger. 

 

 

A/N: next chapter- one of the couples gets freaky in a closet, they stumble upon a HUGE clue and maybe someone else will die...


	11. BBQ-ed Pansy

  
Author's notes: Neville falls over, Pansy flips out, Draco and Hermione have fun in a closet and Harry makes a discovery.  


* * *

They screamed as the shot ricocheted off the stone walls. Pansy fell to the ground, covering her head as pieces of rock flew at them.

"Stop shooting!" Neville yelled, as another shot rang out. The bullet hit his hand and he dropped the flashlight, cursing as it rolled away.

"I can't take it! I can't take it!" Pansy was saying over and over. Her hands were over her ears and she was rocking back and forth.

***

"Was that Neville?" Ginny asked, finding Harry arm in the dark and making him lower the gun.

"Neville?" Harry shouted into the tunnel.

Neville's voice came back to them, "Yes, it's me! I think I've been shot!"

"Stay where you are!" Draco yelled. "We're coming in!"

Everyone headed for the light, Draco still carrying an unconscious Hermione. They walked quickly, Ginny leading and Harry bringing up the rear, walking backward with the gun out in front of him. He backed out of the opening and then shut the painting behind him.

Pansy was still huddled on the ground, muttering gibberish like a lunatic. Neville was holding the flashlight in one hand; the other was hanging limply at his side, dripping blood.

"My god! I've shot you! Are you okay?" Harry said, snatching the flashlight from Neville's hand. He examined the wound. "It went right through your damn hand!" Harry's stomach lurched. "Someone get me something to wrap his hand!"

Everyone looked around; the men were all shirtless and wore only pajama bottoms and either slippers or bare feet. Hermione was out cold and Pansy was beyond help.

"Ginny! I need your nightgown or your knickers- something!" Harry could visualize the shocked and defiant look on his wife's face. "Please, Ginny! He's bleeding to death!"

"Oh, fine!" she snapped and after a second of struggle, Harry was handed Ginny's nightgown. "I'm going back to the other room where we left Ron!" She pushed past Harry.

"You're not going anywhere!"

"Well, I'm not going to stand here in my bra and knickers, it's drafty! I'm going to find something to put on."

"Let's all go, Granger here is getting heavier by the minute."  
***

"Oh, fucking hell!" Draco said. "What happened here?" He laid Hermione down on the cleanest spot he could find on the bed.

Harry was shining the flashlight around the room and they were all shocked at the amount of blood splatter and the broken glass. "Where is Ron?" Harry asked, turning to Pansy.

She was sobbing into her hands. "I..."

"Where is Ron, Pansy?" Harry asked again. "You came through here to get to the secret passage. You had to have seen him! Now tell me where the bloody hell he is!" He grabbed her and shook the shit out of her.

"He's dead! He's dead! Dead, dead DEAD!" Pansy screamed. "And we're next! We're all going to die!" Suddenly her head was knocked backwards as Harry slapped her hard across the face.

"Get a hold of yourself! Now is not the time to get hysterical!" Harry shouted in her face. He pushed Pansy away and turned to Neville. "What happened?"

"We were just about to go down the stairs to the kitchens like you wanted, when we heard sounds coming from this room." Neville gulped, remembering the paralyzing fear he felt. "We- I opened the door after a few minutes and saw..." He was on the verge of cracking up like Pansy, he just knew it! "There was blood everywhere!"

Harry looked over at Ginny, her wide terrified eyes glowing in the bright beam from the flashlight. "Did... did you see Ron?" he asked Neville.

"Nnnoo. He wasn't here. All we saw was blood and then the lights went out."

"Where did the flashlight come from?" Draco asked.

"The dog brought it to us. We thought he was the murderer! He jumped on Pansy and she knocked the mirror off the wall..."

Draco raised his eyebrows. "How the hell did the dog know to bring it to you? Seems a little strange, doesn't it?"

"Everything around here seems strange, Malfoy!" Ginny snapped. "He's your dog isn't he? Didn't you teach him to fetch your slippers and stuff?" She was standing there trying as best as she could to cover her breasts and knickers, shivering from cold.

Draco was about to answer with a smart ass retort when Hermione started moaning. He rushed over to the bed. "Hermione?" He helped her to sit up, gently holding her so she would fall over. 

"What happened?" she asked, her hand feeling the large goose egg on the back of her head.

"You slipped in the dark and hit your head," Harry said. "Malfoy carried you back down the secret passage." He noticed that they were holding hands and looking at one another rather intimately. "Ron- your husband," he said, emphasizing the word 'husband', is apparently missing."

"Missing?" Hermione asked. She gasped in shock as Harry shown the light around the room, illuminating all the crimson splatters and deep sticky pools of blood. "My god! what happened in here?"

"No idea," Draco answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Longbottom and Pansy found it like this. Blood everywhere and Weasley's missing in action."

Hermione looked over at Pansy, who was huddled in a chair sobbing quietly, her legs pulled up in front of her, her hair hanging in her face. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's lost her friggin' mind, and I for one am getting extremely annoyed by her constant screaming, crying and nonsensical insane mumbling," Draco said. "Someone should put her out of her misery."

Pansy's head snapped up and she glared at Draco with burning hatred. "You'd like that wouldn't you?" she said. "You've already gotten rid of Weasley and now you want me dead!" She stood up, her face contorted angrily. "This is all some sick twisted plot of yours to get us all out of the way so that you can have your precious Granger!"

"If I wanted to kill you, Pansy, I could have done it on numerous occasions," Draco spat. "Many times I took the pillow from under my head and held it over your's, wanting so damn badly to smother the life out of you while you were sleeping- but I didn't!"

"I'm not going to sit here and listen to your fucking lies, Draco! I KNOW you're behind this," Pansy said, standing up on shaky legs. She looked for all the world like a clown who had just had a small bomb go off in its face. "I'm not going to just stand around and have some murderer kill me!" She snatched the flashlight from Harry's hand and pushed her way from the room, plunging them once again into darkness.

They heard her sobbing all the way down the hall and then the sound of a door slamming. 

"Someone should go after her," Neville said, meaning someone that was not him. He was cradling his wounded hand and swaying dangerously on his feet.

"I'll go," Ginny said. "I need to find something to wear anyway."

"Ginny, there is no damn way I'm letting you out of my site. You're staying right here," Harry said, considering the case closed.

"You can't tell me what to do, Harry. You're not my father! Hell, I'm not even sure I want you to be my husband anymore!" She pushed past him and felt her way to the door. 

"Ginny..."

"I'm going, Harry. End of story." She fumbled her way into the hall and slowly made her way towards the door she thought belonged to the room Pansy had been staying in.

"Does it hurt, Potter?" Draco asked with a chuckle.

"Does what hurt?" Harry asked, annoyed.

"When you're wife walks all over you, of course!" He laughed harder. "I always thought she was the manliest of all the Weasley's. Perhaps that why you married her- because she was manly."

"Just shut up, Malfoy before I kick your ass."

"Did you say 'kiss my ass'?" Draco asked pretending to be flattered. "Because I'm sorry to have to tell you that you're coming no where near my glorious posterior, Potter."

"Like I would EVER touch your nasty ass with my lips, Malfoy!"

"Oh, but you'd love to touch something else, now wouldn't you, you f..."

"God damn it!" Hermione shouted. "I've had enough of your bickering! Draco, why is it that you always have to start something? Does it make you feel superior to put others down?" She cut him off as he started to answer. "Because all it does it make you look and sound like an idiot. You are not twelve anymore, so act like a damn grown man for once!"

Harry was laughing in the darkness, ecstatic that Draco got told off. That happiness was short lived, however when her anger turned towards him.

"And you, Harry!" Hermione said. "We are in a life and death situation here!"

"I know that!"

"You do?" she asked. "Then why are you wasting time trading insults with Malfoy when you should be helping me think of a way to get us all out of here?"

"He pissed me off!"

"He..."

There was a loud thud as something heavy hit the floor. Tiny shards of broken glass flew up and landed in their hair.

"I think Longbottom just passed out," Draco said.

***

Pansy walked quickly across the room, the beam of light dancing wildly on the floor and walls. She found the door to the bathroom and shut it loudly behind her. Aiming the light on the huge mirror on the opposite side of the room, she moaned loudly when she caught site of what she looked like. As a child, she had never been very attractive, guys ignored her and she knew other girls made fun of her 'pug-like' looks. As soon as she was old enough, she headed straight for the best cosmetic surgeon she could afford.

It worked. Her face and body were transformed into something that made men stand up and take notice. Finally she was sexy and irresistible. Finally she could get the one man she had wanted her entire life: Draco Malfoy.

She had never been very smart and now she realized brains didn't really matter to men- it was tits, asses and cunts that mattered, and she learned how to work them all. Batting her eyelashes timidly, licking her lips seductively, swaying her hips in a way that screamed 'come fuck me!', this is what she mastered and this was how she got what she wanted.

Draco fell for her and so did plenty of other men. She had learned that looks were everything- now her looks were a kin to a troll in drag. "I look like shit!" she said, grabbing her purse off the shelf and digging around inside. Taking all of her cosmetics out and lining them up, including a small crystal bottle she thought was perfume. She then turned the tap on high. She cupped her hands under the warm stream and splashed her her face. It was puffy and sore from crying and her nose was still a little stuffed up.

"Pansy?" Came Ginny's voice through the door. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Weasley, just leave me alone!" She glanced over at the flickering flashlight. "Just fucking great! The damn thing's dying!"

She located her face cleanser in the semi-darkness and scrubbed the smeared mascara and lipstick from her face and neck. After drying off and brushing her hair, she put on a fresh layer of makeup and looked herself over in the mirror. "That's more like it!" She had to squint in the growing darkness because the flashlight was now almost totally dead.

"Pansy?" 

"I said to leave me the hell alone, Weasley! I hate you and you hate me, so stop pretending that you're so damn concerned about me!"

"I was only trying to help!" Ginny said from the other side of the door. "You ungrateful fucking cow," she added under her breath.

Pansy sniffed her armpits and decided she smelled like a monkey cage on a sweltering August afternoon. "I don't need your help or the help of those bumbling morons you call friends." She reached for the crystal vial and uncorked it. "I'm going to find my own way out of here." She poured some of it into her palm and smoothed it over her neck and wrists. "And I'm not going to get help either. All of you can rot in this fucking house for all I care!"

Ginny leaned on the door, rolling her eyes. After fumbling around it what she thought must be the closet; she had managed to find herself some clothes to wear; although it was dark, so she could be wearing dookie brown pants and a green and red polka dot shirt for all she knew. "Pansy..." Was all she got out before the screams tore through the air and almost made her eardrums explode.

***

"What now?" Draco asked, sighing disgustedly. "With her is always drama, drama, drama!"

"She probably just saw a spider or something," Harry said, not believing a word of what he just said. He knew in his gut that something was terribly wrong and as soon as Ginny's scream joined Pansy's, he bolted up and fled the pitch black room as fast as he could. "Stay with Neville!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Draco and Hermione sat there on the cold, bloody, glass littered floor, listening to the screaming. Neville still hadn't moved and Hermione found herself feeling for his pulse just to make sure he was still alive.

"What do you think is happening?" Hermione asked, inching closer to Draco and she felt his arms wrap protectively around her. She laid her head on his shoulder, loving how his smooth skin felt under her cheek.

"I don't know, Hermione, but I have a feeling it's not something good."

***

"Ginny?" Harry said, wondering if she could hear him over the extremely loud beating of his heart- or the intense painful cries from Pansy. "Ginny!"

"In here!" Ginny said, her voice had a scratchy sound to it. Harry supposed it was from screaming. 

A hand came out of the dark and Harry gasped as took hold of his arm. He instinctively knew by the soft touch that it was Ginny. "What's wrong? What's happened?" Pansy's screams abruptly came to a halt and the silence that followed was deafening.

***

"She's stopped," Draco said. "I wonder what happened to make her stop screaming?" He hoped it wasn't that she had died. Yes, he hated her with a passion and fantasized more than once about that very thing- but really, he didn't want her to end up murdered.

"Should we go and see what's going on?" Hermione asked.

"What about Longbottom?" Draco asked. "We can't just leave him here. What if the killer comes back and finds him?"

Hermione knew he was right; they couldn't just leave him lying there alone like some sort of sacrifice. "Maybe we can carry him?"

Draco opened his mouth to answer and then snapped it shut, his arms tightened around Hermione. "Do you hear something? Something like footsteps?" 

Hermione's eyes widened in fright. "Maybe it's Harry," she said, but just then they heard him screaming obscenities from the room down the hall as he tried to break the bathroom door down. 

"Maybe not," Draco whispered. "Quick!" He stood up and grabbed Neville's arms. "Take hold of his legs, we need to hide him."

"Hide him where, exactly?" Hermione asked, as the footsteps came closer down the hall. Since the floor was hardwood, they could hear the clicking as clear as day and it reminded Hermione crazily of a pair of black pumps she had worn to a Ministry function last summer. The heels were way too tall and they killed her feet. By the end of the night, her feet had swollen up like fat sausages. She remembered how the hells clicked against the polished marble floor, and it sounded almost the same.

"Help me shove him under the bed!" Draco said, as they felt their way across the room. In the distance, they heard the sound of breaking wood and Harry's triumphant laugh.

"Shove him under the bed? Draco, Hermione said in disgust, "we can't treat him that way!"

"Now is not the time to argue about whether or not it's ethical to cram an unconscious bleeding man under a four poster bed! The killer is coming and we need to hide!"

Hermione joined Draco and they succeeded in pushing Neville to safety and then both stood up, not sure of what to do. It was pitch black and they didn't know where to go.

"Wasn't there a closet next to the painting?" Hermione asked, in a panic; the foot steps were now almost right outside the door.

"Hurry!" Draco hissed and yanked her in the direction he hoped was right. He felt his way around the bed, and then bolted across the floor. He reached the closet where he threw himself and Hermione inside and quietly shut the door just as the killer entered the room.

***

"Oh my GOD!" Harry and Ginny said together. They stood huddled in the busted doorway, their mouths hanging open in shock. Pansy lay on the floor, the dim rays from the flashlight beam illuminating her smoking, black body. She looked like she had just been roasted on a spit to be eaten later at a pig roast. Her skin was cracked, and pinkish-colored ooze was dribbling from the wounds. Her eye sockets were a gelatinous yellow mess and her hands were curled into claws, the red polish had bubbled from the heat.  
"She looks like she's been cooked alive!" Harry said, taking a few steps forward. He was careful not to touch her body as he picked up the flashlight from the floor. He shone it over her body, slowly, inch by inch. "What the hell could have done this?" He asked. The light suddenly caught the tiny crystal vial that lie on the floor next to Pansy's blackened foot. "Isn't that the gift that the killer gave to you? the Manticore venom? What's it doing here?"

He kicked it a little and some of the venom leaked out onto the floor, where it smoked and burned a hole in the tile floor. "Either she mistakenly put this on, or someone did it for her."

Ginny looked up at his accusing face. "I know what you're thinking. Just say it!"

"You were alone with her, Ginny."

"I can't believe you would even THINK I could ever do this to another human being!"

"Human being? Isn't that a bit of a stretch?" He put the light under his chin and made a goofy face. "Come one Gin! You know I don't think you did this!"

"You're a complete jackass, you know that?" She was trying to sound stern, but she couldn't help but crack a smile. "Seriously, if I didn't do this, then who did?"

"I don't know, but someone planted that Manticore venom. Someone who knew Pansy well enough to know how conceited she is, and that she at some point would want to refresh her makeup.

They both stood there, staring at Pansy's poor burnt body, wondering what kind of monster they were dealing with, and who it could be.

***

"Shh!" Draco whispered, putting his hand over Hermione's mouth, just in case she screamed. He closed his eyes and tried to remain in his right mind. Sweat was rolling down his neck and his soaked bangs were handing annoyingly in his face. His heart was racing and his legs felt weak and rubbery. 

He was afraid, and that was nothing new. He fought the urge to fling Hermione away, run from the closet, and fall at the killer's feet... begging for mercy. He was a coward- sad but true. He had always been deathly afraid to stand up for himself or for what he believed in. Time and again he chose the easy path, time and again, he stood by and let the ones he loved be hurt and killed because he was too afraid to make a stand. No more. Tonight he would change. Tonight he would cease to be the coward and stand brave and tall, ready to protect the woman he loved!

He hugged Hermione closer and together they listened as the murderer walked across the floor. Draco reached over and cracked the door open. Hermione stiffened in fear against him.

Hermione caught a whiff of that floral smell again. It was so damn familiar and the reason why was dangling elusively just out of her reach.

The intruder was carrying a candle; its flames danced on the walls, making giant shadows. It was difficult to get a good look at his face because he was turned away, looking at the painting. Draco thought he could see long dark hair, but then again he thought it might just be the shadows. The killer watched the silent woman in the painting play with her necklace and then he placed his fingers under the frame and pulled it open. He stepped into the dark tunnel and closed it behind him with a click.

Draco slowly let go of Hermione's mouth and let out the breath he didn't even know he had been holding. "He's gone."

Hermione collapsed in his arms and started sobbing. "We have to get out of this house! We have to!" She held onto to him for life. "I don't want to die like this!"

He crushed her face into his bare chest, kissing the top of her frizzy head. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm going to get us out of here." He took her face in his hands and wiped her tears with his thumbs. "I will never let anything happen to you. Never."

He leaned in and placed his lips gently on hers, and for the first time, he knew this was where he wanted to be. He felt it in his racing heart and in his fluttering stomach. He loved this woman and he now knew that she loved him back. The second they escaped from this house, he was going to whisk her away to some exotic place, and there they could finally be together- as it should be.

Hermione's soft finger-tips brushed over the hot skin of his bare chest, relishing the way it made him shiver. She had often wondered how it would feel to caress every inch of his naked body and maybe- just maybe- if they managed to get out of this hell hole, she would be able to properly find out. For now, though, she would settle for his smooth hairless chest 'And maybe his bare ass', she thought, sliding her hands down the back of his pajama bottoms, cupping his cheeks and using them to push him further against her.

Draco was a little shocked at her forwardness, but got over it very quickly. He deepened the kiss, his hands twisting in the back of her tangled hair. "I love you..." he whispered into her lips. "So much..." 

Hermione responded by breaking the kiss and removing her knickers. "I've wanted to hear those words from you for so long." She wished she could see his eyes as she rested her forehead on his. "Make love to me," she said softly, brushing her hand across his erection. "If we're going to die, I want to die having known the pleasures of the man I've longed for what seems like an eternity..." She could feel his hitching breaths on her face as her hand slid into the front of his pants and released his cock. "I want you, Draco." She kissed his shoulder. "I need you." Now his neck. "I love you..." Her lips found his, crashing down on them passionately.

Draco lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Bracing himself against the closet wall, he entered her. They knew they didn't have much time before Harry and Ginny either came back or called for them, so it quick and fierce; his back hitting the wall every time she thrust herself down upon him.

As their pace quickened even more, and she muffled her screams by biting her bottom lip, he told her over and over that he loved her, until, at last, he released inside of her. 

"Now I can die happy," she said, as he embraced her, still buried deep inside of her.

"Now I have no need to die," Draco said. "I've already been to heaven." He kissed her once more, and then they heard Ginny yelling for them.

***

 

"What do we do?" Ginny asked. "Should we get Hermione and Draco down here?"

"I don't know," Harry said, stepping around the body. "Maybe Hermione..." Something caught his eye. The full length mirror on the wall looked odd for some reason. It was rippling like water. He walked over to it and reached out his hand. There was some kind of enchantment on the glass because when he touched it, his hand slipped right through the shiny surface. "Get Hermione and Malfoy down here right now!"

***

Draco and Hermione quickly untangled themselves and managed to exit the closet just as Ginny ran into the room, carrying the flashlight. Its light barely penetrated the darkness and it kept going out and then back on.

"What is it?" Hermione asked a breathless Ginny. 

"Is it Pansy?" 

Ginny bent over, trying to get her breath. "It... it's..." She took in a huge gulp of air. "Just come on! You need to see this!"

"But what about Neville?" Hermione asked, stopping in her tracks.

Ginny looked around and didn't see him. "Where...?"

"We had to hide him under the bed. The murderer came in and we had to hide!" Hermione said, her eyes wide as she recounted the story to Ginny- minus the closet sex.

Ginny was astonished. "Did you see who it was?"

"No," Draco said with a frown. "His back was turned away. I couldn't get a good look."

"That's too bad," Ginny sighed. "Wait until you see what Harry found!" She grabbed Hermione by the arm.

"But what do we do about Neville?" Hermione asked again.

Ginny looked around. "Leave him. I think he'll be safe as long as he remains hidden."

Hermione looked doubtful. "But..."

"Just come on! Harry's waiting!" She pushed them out the door and they quickly ran down the hall to Pansy's room.

***

The smell hit them as soon as they entered. Draco wrinkled his nose and Hermione covered the lower half of her face with her hand.

"What is that fucking awful smell?" he asked, resisting the urge to vomit.

Ginny took them to the broken bathroom door. "What you're smelling is barbequed Pansy." She motioned towards the still smoldering body on the floor.

Hermione jumped back in shock, a small cry of disgust escaping from her trembling lips. "What happened to her?"

Harry turned around and held out the small vial of Manticore venom. It was swaddled in a hand towel. "Someone saw to it that she used this."

Draco was speechless. This black crispy thing could not be Pansy!

"Was... was this what you wanted to show us?" Hermione asked, tearing her eyes away from the crystal vial.

"No. this is what I wanted to show you." He took the light from Pansy and shined it on the mirror. As they looked on, Harry put his arm through the glass, just like it was water. He then stuck his leg in, and then half of his body was immersed in the rippling surface.

"Where does it go?" Hermione wondered out loud. "Is there something on the other side?"

Harry stuck his head through. "There's another secret passage." He pulled his head and body back and turned to Draco. "Where does this go?"

"I don't know!" Draco said, taken aback. "Why would I know where the hell it goes?"

"This is your house, Malfoy, and I think it's time you told us all of it's secrets. Maybe we can find a way out of here!"

Draco looked confused for a second. "My house? When did I ever say it was MY house?"


	12. Peek a boo Neville! I see you!

  
Author's notes: Draco tells all, and Neville has a run in with someone who isn't very happy to see him.  


* * *

"What the HELL do you mean this isn't your house?" Harry asked. His hand was shaking very badly, making the beam from the flashlight bob up and down.

"Not my house. No mi casa. Non ma maison. Nicht mein Haus," Draco said, sarcastically. "Now do you understand, Potter?"

"Now is not the time to be a fucking smartass, Malfoy!" Harry said. "If this isn't your house, then who does it belong to?" Draco just smirked at him, and Harry found himself loosing patience. 

Harry stepped up to Draco and got in his face. "Don't forget that I have a gun, Malfoy." He smiled wickedly at him. "You either tell me what I want to know, or I'll blow your head off." He shone the light right in Draco's face, and with his free hand, he took the gun from the back of his pajama bottoms. 

Draco did not even flinch when Harry put the gun to his forehead. "I don't think you'd shoot me, Potter; you don't have the balls."

"Don't tempt me, you bastard! Tell me what you know about all of this!" Harry said through violently clenched teeth. 

"First of all," Draco sneered angrily, "stop talking to me like I'm a bitch!" He grabbed the flashlight from Harry's hand. "Secondly, I think you should stop stalling. Either pull the damn trigger or get the fuck out of my way. I, for one, would love to see where this tunnel leads! Maybe you'd rather stand here and argue with me instead of trying to find a way out of here?"

Hermione, her eyes wide with fright, tried to calm them both down. "Harry, please put the gun down," she said, putting her hand gently on his arm. He glared at Draco and slowly he lowered the weapon. "I'm sure Draco is just as confused and clueless about this house as we are," she said, looking over at him for confirmation. "Right?"

"That's not exactly true," he said, apologetically.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "You don't have anything to do with these murders, do you?" Tears were standing in her eyes, ready to come tumbling down her cheeks.

"Of course he does!" Ginny said. "Have you forgotten who he is? Stop thinking with your cunt and see him for what he really is!"

"And what's that?" Draco asked. "Please enlighten me, you cheating whoring slut!"

"How dare you talk to her like that!" Harry shouted. He jumped on top of Draco, knocking the flashlight from his hand and sent them both tumbling to the floor. They were rolling around, punching the hell out of each other, screaming obscenities.

Hermione moaned in exasperation. "Stop it!" she said, trying to pry Draco from Harry. "People are dead, or have you forgotten?" She picked up the flashlight and aimed the beam at Pansy's charred remains. "Do you see her? Someone did this to her. A sick someone who obviously wants to pick us off one by one. Now unless you want to end up dead like her, I suggest you stop the petty name calling and the juvenile fighting matches right now!" she yelled. "If we're going to get out of here alive, we need to put aside our differences and work together. Grow up for Merlin's sake!"

The two struggling men on the floor looked up at her. Harry let go of the fistful of Draco's hair he was trying to rip out, and Draco stopped his fist in mid-punch. They both wore identical masks of fear and guilt.

"Sorry," Harry said, getting up.

Draco got to his feet and automatically smoothed his rumpled hair. "If Potter and his bit... beautiful wife," Draco said, making a face as if the words themselves tasted bad, "are done wrongly accusing me, physically attacking me and being just plain rude, I will be more than happy to tell you what I know." He shot Harry a look of pure hate and Harry gave it right back. "May I?" he said to Hermione, indicating he'd like to have the flashlight back. 

She handed it to him, wondering what in the world he was up to.

Hermione, Ginny and Harry watched as Draco made his way over to the mirror. He placed his hand inside and then turned to them. "I'll tell you everything I know on the way."

***

Neville opened one eye. All he saw was pure darkness. 'Where the bloody hell am I?' he wondered. 'Am I dead?' He felt the ground around him, finding nothing. Raising his hands, he came in contact with something solid above him and he panicked. 'I AM dead! I'm in my coffin!' He started to cry in frustration as he pushed up with all his might and nothing budged. He hit his injured hand and screamed out in pain. Realizing being dead shouldn't hurt; he came to the conclusion that he had been buried alive.

Claustrophobia set in and he went totally berserk, flailing his legs and arms, tears welling up and sweat soaking his body. He rolled over to his side, his foot coming out from under the bed and he stopped- stunned. A tiny bit of hope made him smile. Maybe he wasn't buried alive after all! Feeling his way around the obsticale with his good hand, he realized there was a way out and slid on his back until he was free.

Standing up, he felt the top of whatever it was that had been holding him prisoner. "A bed!" he almost shouted. "How the bloody hell did I get under a bed?" The last thing he remembered was walking down the tunnel with Pansy and suddenly there was a lot of pain. "Someone shot me! I remember!" He felt his way around the bed, his slippers making crunching noises as he stepped on the broken glass that littered the floor.

He was feeling more than a little confused. Where was everyone? Why was he all alone and under the bed like he was hiding from something? A disturbing thought popped into his head and he wondered if everyone else was dead and he was the only one still alive. Maybe he was alone- alone with the killer! His heart started racing again and he stumbled through the dark, turning this way and that, knowing for a fact that the murderer was going to pounce on him at any moment.

***

Draco led the way, Hermione slightly behind him, but still holding his hand. Ginny walked behind Hermione and Harry was last, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to see if they were being followed. 

"So tell us, Malfoy," Ginny said, "tell us everything you know about what's going on here."

"Well, I guess it all started at this one party I attended about six years ago." Draco shook the dimming flashlight again, but it didn't get any brighter this time. "Shit!" he said. "Oh well. Where was I? Oh, yeah- the party. So like I was saying, I was at this party and low and behold, I saw Blaise walk in. He was dressed very suavely and was acting like a pompous ass- as always."

Draco slowed his pace, so he'd be able to tell his story in it's entirety before they got to the end of the tunnel and probably got ambushed by the killer. "we were tossing back drinks like crazy and soon we were smashed. I started telling him about my so called wife, and he started going on about how I was a pansy-assed, pussy-whipped, moron for letting my wife run all over me." 

Draco hated telling people anything about his personal life, but he new he really had no choice. "She had been cheating on me since before we were even married. I even caught her in bed with different men at different times and just said 'whatever'. Blaise thought I was weak and that I didn't have the balls to divorce her. He was under the false impression that I loved my wife." Draco stopped at looked at Hermione. "He was dead wrong. I turned a blind eye to her affairs because I didn't care what she did. I was in love with someone else."

"Yeah, we know!" Harry said, rolling his eyes. "You were madly in lust with Hermione and only married Pansy because you were too much of a damn coward to tell her how you felt. Tell us something we don't already know!"

Draco wanted nothing more than to pummel the shit out of Harry. He ground his teeth together to keep from saying something smart; he didn't want to piss of Hermione again. "I'm getting to it, Potter," he said as calmly as he could. He looked at them, one by one and then turned and started walking again. "He said I needed to put her in her place, and to give the cheating bitch the punishment she deserved. He then told me a secret. A secret that made even ME sick to my stomach."

"What was the secret?" Hermione asked, not sure if she wanted to hear it.

"The punishment for HIS cheating wife was to chain her to the bed, starve her, rape her and then leave her for weeks a time with only his crazy mother to take care of her."

 

***

Neville found his way to the door and out into the hall. He took a few cautious steps forward, hoping he didn't trip over a dead body or something. The only sound was the sound of his breathing, the only smell was the smell of- perfume? He stopped and sniffed the air, puzzled. It smelled like flowers and reminded him of Hogwarts for some reason. 

He heard a door open somewhere behind him and whirled around. "Wh... who's there?" he whispered, praying that no one answered back. There was only silence and he relaxed, thinking it had only been his imagination playing tricks. He decided to keep moving, taking small steps, and when his foot hit only air, he realized he was at the stair case.

A small tinkling laugh came from nowhere. He turned back around, clutching his heart. He stood paralyzed to the spot, afraid to move a muscle. "Is someone there?" he asked into the darkness. The scent of the flowery perfume became stronger and he heard footsteps coming towards him. 

"Hello, Neville," a sweet voice said.

"I... I know you don't I?" Neville said, trying to squint into the dark to get a look. He was sure he knew who it was, but what was she doing here?

"Yes. You know me. You know me very well." There was a strange noise and then a small light popped out of the darkness, illuminating a familiar face. "And that, dear Neville, is a problem."

The light went out and Neville, caught off guard, was hit in the head by something very hard. He lost his footing and fell backward down the stairs, landing with a sickening crunch on the marble floor below.

"Problem solved!" the killer said with a laugh, tossing the brick down the stairs, where it landed next to Neville's crumpled body.

***

"You mean he kept her locked up and starving while he went traveling around the world, having a jolly good time?" Harry was thoroughly disgusted. "What happened to her and what's she have to do with you and this house?"

Draco could see flickering light in the distance and knew the end was near. "I said I didn't believe him, so he brought me to his house- this house- to show me his handy work."

"This house belongs... belonged to Zabini?" Ginny asked. "Did you see her- his wife? When he brought you here?" 

"Yes." Draco stopped at the partially opened door at the end of the passage. "I saw her, and I helped her," he said and pushed the door open.

A/N: How exactly did Draco help this poor woman? Will the room they just entered hold any clues to the killer's identity?


	13. And the Killer is

  
Author's notes: The killer is revealed  


* * *

The flashlight went out just as Draco stepped into the room. He shook it a bit, nothing happened, so he unceremoniously tossed it onto the floor. 

Harry was expecting a loud thunk, but didn't hear it. Looking down, he saw they were standing on carpet. Every other room they had been in had had hard wood floors- except this one. It was a deep purple and looked almost black in the candle light.

"Do you smell that?" Hermione asked, sniffing the air. "I've smelled that perfume before, here in the house, and I know I've smelled it somewhere else." The floral scent was very strong, almost over powering and Hermione found herself getting a slight headache.

"I smell it," Harry said. "Sort of like..." He tried to think of how to describe it, but just shruged his shoulders in defeat.

"This is the most beautiful room I've ever seen!" Ginny said, turning this way and that. It was decorated in various shades of purple- including the walls, which were a very pale shade of what Ginny would call mulberry. The drapes were a rich deep violet, the lace doilies were lavender and on the desk was a huge crystal vase that contained a giant spray of purple and white flowers. There were ornate mirrors and paintings of ballerinas in purple tutus on the walls. "I could die here! It's the lovliest thing I've ever laid eyes on."

"It looks like a fucking purple nightmare!" Draco said. "How can you even think this looks attractive?" Draco rolled his eyes. "I forgot, you're a Weasley. They have no taste."

"Draco, keep a civil tongue, please," Hermione warned. She was standing behind him and impulsively stepped closer, snaking her arms around him and embarrassing him. She rested her cheek on the cool skin of his back and whispered, "You might need that tongue to pleasure me in the future, and it would be a shame for me to have to rip it from your mouth."

Draco chuckled softly. "Who am I to deny my beautiful sexy lover the pleasures of my very talented tongue?" He turned, her arms going around his neck and his around her waist. Their lips met, both sighing as if they were in heaven.

Harry tore his eyes away from the picture he was examining, and saw Draco and Hermione in the throws of passion. He elbowed Ginny, who was standing next to him looking at a pretty ceramic unicorn. 

"What?" she said, annoyed. He flicked his head in their direction and Ginny's temper exploded. She stalked over to the kissing couple and ripped them apart. "How could you Hermione?" she asked, shaking with anger. "My brother- your husband- is missing and probably dead and here you are, kissing Malfoy!" She poked Hermione in the chest with her pointer finger very hard. "You are the only sister I've ever had, and it hurts me to see you throw away what remains of your marriage, just so you can fuck around with this asshole!"

Hermione initial feelings to this accusation was guilt and a little shame, but it quickly dissolved into fury. "Don't you dare insult him! He's ten times the man Ron is and you know it!" Hermione, who had never had an argument with Ginny in all the years she had known her, was a little shocked that it was happening now. "Ron has been a horrible husband; you know what he's done! He cares more about himself than he does about me and the children." 

Draco tried to pull her away from Ginny, but Hermione shook him off. "No, Draco. She needs to hear this!"

"I'm sorry, Ginny, but you have to understand that the only reason I ever married your brother was because I couldn't have Draco. That's right," she said to Ginny's red face. "I have always been in love with Draco and... this might shock you, but Ron has always loved some one else as well! Our marriage was a shame from the beginning and I'm tired of it all. I want to be happy! Don't I deserve to be happy?"

Harry spoke before Ginny could snap back. "Did you just say that Ron has been in love with someone else?" This came as no surprise to him, he had know all along. What surprised him was that Hermione had known about it. Ron had taken great pains to keep his affair a secret and had recruited Harry unwillingly into his web of deceit. Time and again Harry had lied for Ron, always having to give him an alibis, and even going with Ron to buy her gifts- usually her favorite perfume: 'Summer Lilac'. Harry hated doing this and numerous times tried to get Ron to give the woman up, but it was no use.

Harry never knew the identity of this 'other woman', but he had his idea of who it was. The affair went on for some time and then it just stopped. Ron was frantic with worry when his lover seemed to drop off the face of the earth. He never heard from her again, and spent everyday telling Harry how he wished he would have left Hermione for her when he had the chance.

"I'm not stupid, Harry," Hermione said, on the verge of crying. "I knew something was going on!" She wiped her face as the tears fell. "He was never home and when he did show up, he smelled like..." Her face went slack and her jaw dropped. "Lilacs!"

"Huh?" Harry asked, glancing over at Draco for an answer, but he looked just as confused.

Hermione, without speaking, started walking around the room, opening dresser drawers, rifling though papers and clothing. "I KNEW I recognized that perfume!" She tossed a pair of silk stockings over her head. "Could it be her? I need more proof!" She stopped and turned to them. "Don't just stand there looking daft! Help me find some clues!"

They all jumped as if electrocuted and went to work digging through closets and desk drawers. "What exactly are we looking for?" Harry asked Ginny.

"I'm not sure, but I guess we'll know when we find it." She went over to the vanity, where there some trinkets, a jewelry box and something else; something that made her heart skip a beat. She picked up the black leather-bound book that said 'My Diary'. There was no name on the book cover or on any of the pages. She turned towards the back and gasped. "Malfoy?"

Draco stopped, papers in hand and turned to Ginny. "What?"

"You've been in this room before, haven't you?"

Hermione and Harry quickly dropped what they were doing and spun around.

Ginny peered over the book at him. His silence and the reluctant look on his face was answer enough. "Dear diary," she read aloud. "I'm free from my prison, finally! Yes, I might be locked in another, but at least I'm in a hospital, and not chained to my bed, filthy and starving. And to think I have Draco Malfoy to thank for it! I do believe we have all misjudged him these past years. He is my savior, and I will be forever grateful to him for his kindness and compassion. Blaise has not been to see me, and I hope he never shows up! I hate him with every fiber of my being and someday, somehow, I will get my revenge for what he's done!"

Hermione and Harry both looked over at Draco. Harry was visually shocked that Malfoy could ever do anything nice for another human being. Hermione's eyes lit up with love and she smiled at him.

Ginny turned a few more pages and read: "Draco just left. He came to see how I was getting along. He brought me a beautiful purple dress- he remembered that it was my favorite color. Wasn't that nice of him?" Ginny smirked at Draco, who was looking rather uncomfortable. "He sat and talked with me for a long time. He tries to act very happy and if nothing in the world can bother him, but I could sense some underlying sadness about him."

Draco didn't know how much more he could take. He itched to snatch the damn diary from her hands and set it a blaze with one of the candles. He never wanted anyone to know that he really wasn't the bastard he had always pretended to be. It had taken years to cultivate his image of a bad-ass unfeeling prick, and now in a few short minutes, it was crumbling.

He watched Hermione cross the room, over to where Ginny was, and start going through the jewelry box. She was still looking for something.

"I asked him if everything was fine with his wife and tried to lie, but I saw right through it. After a bit of prodding, he finally told me that he had never loved her and it was getting harder and harder to even be in the same room with her." 

Ginny flipped the page, hurriedly. "I asked him if there was someone else he loved and he told me yes. Then he shocked me by telling me it was Hermione Granger! I mean, I would have never in a million years thought it possible! He was always so mean and nasty to her to her!"

"You can say that again!" Harry said, rolling his eyes.

Ginny ignored him and pressed on. "I laughed out loud before I could help myself and he was so embarrassed and angry, that he got up to leave. I quickly apologized and righted the situation by telling him a secret of my own. I told him that the reason I laughed when he told me he was in love with Hermione, was because I was in love with her husband, Ron..."

Ginny's voice trailed off as Hermione lifted something from among the pearl necklaces and gold bracelets. It was a Prefect Badge- a Ravenclaw Prefect badge. "Draco, what happened to Blaise's wife? Where is she now?"

"She's dead," Draco said simply. "She killed herself."

"What do you mean 'she killed herself'?" Harry asked, his voice on edge.

"Damn Potter, don't you understand fucking English? why are you always asking me to explain myself? Has hanging around Weasley all these years made you brain dead?"

Harry lunged forward and Ginny stepped in front of him. "You can beat the shit out of him later, but right now we need him." She gave Harry a stern look, and after making sure he wasn't going to go for Draco again, she turned around. "How and when did she die, Malfoy? What happened to her?"

He ran his hands through his hair, sighed- really not wanting to tell them. He felt immense guilt for what had happened to her and had never really gotten over it. "After I talked Blaise into putting her into the hospital. Wait- I should start at the beginning." He looked at the floor as he talked, not wanting to see everyone's reactions. "When Blaise brought me here to this room and I saw..." He shivered, remembering it like it was yesterday. "I saw what he had been doing to her."

Hermione walked over and put her arms around him for support. He smiled at her gratefully and then the smile faded as he continued. "She was naked, bruised, bleeding and filthy with human waste and..." He gulped, closed his eyes, took a calming deep breathe and then opened them again. "She was chained to the bed by her arms and legs, and was laughing like a mad woman. Clearly he had hurt her and starved her until she had lost her mind."

"What a sick bastard!" Ginny said, her face as white as a sheet. "How did you talk him into letting her go?"

"Talk?" Draco said, laughing. "There was no talking involved. I took one look at her, listened to him offer me access to violate her, and then I beat the living shit out of him!"

Harry looked impressed despite himself. He really hated Malfoy, but for the first time, he found himself looking at him in a different light. "You just took her and put her in the hospital yourself?"

"Yes," Draco said, holding his head high. "There was no way I could leave her in that state! I had to help her, so I rummaged through his pockets, found the key and freed her. I used magic to clean her up a bit, dressed her and then Apparated to St. Mungos."

"What did Blaise do when he realized what you did?" Hermione asked.

"What could he do? He raged and stormed for a few weeks, and then- went through the legal system to get her back." Draco held out his hands as if pleading. "I tried so hard- used my own money to try to keep him from her, but in the end, they let him take her." The lump in his throat was growing and he knew unless he got a hold on his emotions, he was going to lapse into t a crying jag. 

Hermione embraced him more tightly, she was feeling so many things at once; disgust at Blaise, pity for his wife, and overwhelming pride and love for Draco.

"He treated her fine for a while, but then he started to torment her again. He took great joy in sending me pictures of himself raping her and then... something happened, something that made her snap; drove her over the edge." He squeezed Hermione, and kissed the top of her head. He could never imagine treating anyone the Blaise treated his wife. "I never found out what it was, though. All I know is that she went crazy, killed his mother with a butcher knife and then came back here- to this room and took her own life."

"How... how did she do it?" Ginny asked, looking down at the last entry in the diary. All it said was 'It's over'.

"She crawled into that bed over there, took the knife and slit her own throat."

They all looked over to the bed. No one had even thought about going near it, but now, Harry decided he wanted a closer look. The bed was over in the corner away from the candle light, where it was dark. As Harry approached it, he noticed something odd. It was perfectly made, but there was a lump in the shape of a body lying in the middle, under the purple satin comforter.

With an apprehensive look over his shoulder at the others, who were now close behind him, he grabbed the blanket with a trembling hand and pulled it back.

Hermione screamed, Ginny fainted and Draco rushed to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Oh my fucking hell," Harry said slowly. He was looking into the pale, dead face of Ron. His hand was shaking even more as he reached over and felt Ron's neck for a pulse. He was praying that he would find one, but there was none. What he did find was the piano wire tied around his neck so hard that it had cut into the flesh.

"Is he dead?" Draco asked, straining to hold up an unconscious Ginny. Hermione was turned around, her hand pressed over her mouth, her body quaking with sobs. He wanted to go and comfort her but he didn't want to just dump Ginny on the floor.

"Yes," Harry said. "It looks like he was strangled to death."

"But that makes no sense," Draco said. "The room he disappeared from was covered in blood. If it wasn't from his, then whose was it?"

Harry licked his lips, knowing he was going to have to take the comforter down further so that he could see if Ron had been stabbed or something. "I... I can't do this!" he said, taking a step back.

"Here," Draco said, handing Ginny to Harry. "I'll do it."

Hermione turned around, her face was splotchy and her hand was still over her mouth.

Draco ripped the blanket off and to his horror, saw that from the waist down, his body was missing. Someone had cut him in half. He quickly covered him back up, turned and puked on the carpet at Harry's feet.

"Oh, my God!" Hermione wailed. "What is it! What did she do to him?"

"She?" Harry asked. And then it clicked. The Ravenclaw Prefect badge, the affair with Ron, that lilac perfume... "Malfoy, who was Blaise's wife?"

Draco retched again, he couldn't shake the image of Ron's intestines hanging out of his mutilated body.

"Malfoy! Damn it, who was Blaise's wife?" Harry screamed. "Tell me! I think I know who the killer is, now tell me who he was married to!"

"He was married to..." Draco started to say.

"He was married to my sister," the killer said, stepping into the room from the secret passage, her wand held out and aimed at them.


	14. Oh the Drama!

  
Author's notes: It's the end- with an epilogue!  


* * *

Watson insists that I am the dramatist in real life. Some touch of the artist wells up within me, and calls insistently for a well staged performance. Surely our profession would be a drab and sordid one if we did not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify our results.  
\- Sherlock Holmes

"Parvati?" Ginny asked in shock. "But..."

"Never suspected me did you?" Parvati asked back, looking smug. She slowly walked towards them, her wand still aimed at, her high heels making no noise on the plush purple carpet.

"I knew that perfume was familiar!" Hermione and Harry exclaimed together.

"Do you mean to tell me that you've been running around here, killing everyone, while wearing a very tight, very short mini skirt and patent leather stiletto heels?" Ginny asked in disbelief.

"Yes, well just because you're a murderer doesn't mean you can't dress well. I kill, and I do it while being fashionable." She tossed her long pony-tail over her shoulder, making her gold earrings dance in the candle light. "One should always look good, no matter the circumstances."

"So," Harry started, his hand itching to grab the revolver that was sticking out of the waistband of his pajamas. He wanted to keep her talking, maybe she'd let her guard down a bit and then they could jump on her. "I understand why you killed Zabini. He kept your sister prisoner, hurt her, and ultimately made her kill herself..."

"Kill herself!" Parvati shouted, making them all jump. "My sister would never have killed herself, you dolt! That bastard sliced her throat and said she did it herself! I was here, in the closet, and saw the whole thing!" She started crying, but quickly wiped away the tears harshly with the back of her free hand. "He never knew I was there. After he left the room, I vowed that I would get my revenge for what he had done to her."

"I killed him and I loved every fucking moment of it!" she said, smiling sweetly. "He was so surprised when he saw me, thinking it was Padma's ghost come back to get her revenge! He tried to shoot me, but missed, and then I took out the dagger I'd given to Harry and threw it, hitting him right in the heart. I jumped on him and stabbed him over and over!"

Everyone was silently visualizing every horrid detail in their mind, seeing the shocked expression on Blaise's face as the ghost of his murdered wife took her revenge.

"He fell back on the bed dying, blood pouring from his wounds, and then I took the rope and strangled him. The house-elf helped me hold him up so that I could shoot him in his head, and then we strung him up from the ceiling. It went so smoothly, and thanks to Neville and Pansy and their loud love making, no one heard anything!"

Draco was barely listening to her. He was still caught up by the fact that Padma had been murdered. "But it was investigated," Draco said. "Blaise told me the authorities concluded that it was suicide." He felt sick to his stomach. He had had a chance to save Padma and had failed. When he had heard that she killed herself, he was overcome with guilt and blamed himself. Now, if this was true, he felt even worse. He had left her to die a most horrible death at the hands of a lunatic.

Parvati saw the painful look on Draco's face and her expression softened. "Draco, don't feel guilty about what happened. You tried to help, and my mother and I are eternally grateful for what you did." She wanted to reach out and comfort him, but knew the second she did, one or more of them would seize the opportunity and capture her. "We hadn't seen Padma for months; he kept her away from us and told us lies about where she was and how she didn't want to see us any more. When you rescued her, we at last had the chance to see her again, even though it was only for a short time."

"But why did you kill Ron?" Hermione asked, pointing to his mutilated body. "I mean you cut him in half!"

"Talk about over-kill!" Draco said with disgust.

Parvati rolled her eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be smart, Hermione? He was having an affair with my sister while he was married to you. He told her that he would leave you to be with her. He promised it over and over but never delivered. She got tired of it, and even though she still loved him, she went off and married Blaise instead. For a long time, I blamed you, but then I realized that you too were just a victim. I decided that..."

She backed up slowly, making her way over to the bed. "It was all his fault that she ended up dead!" she screamed. "If he would have had the balls to leave you and be with her- but NO! All he gave her was empty promises and excuses, giving her no choice but to seek love somewhere else!" Her face was contorted with fierce anger. "This was all his fault!" she whipped off the covers and spit on his mutilated body.

"I crept up behind the bastard and..." She pretended to wrap a garrote around an invisible person and choke the living shit out of them. "He never saw it coming!"

Hermione moaned and buried her face in Draco's chest. Ginny averted her eyes and tried to not pass out.

"You sent him an invitation at the last minute so that you could kill him as well?" Harry asked, taking a step towards her, hoping in her anger that she didn't notice. "You think this was just as much Ron's fault as it was Blaise's, don't you?" Harry wished he could just whip out the gun and blow her knee cap off or something. "How did you know about this party anyway?"

Parvati smiled, looking very pretty despite being crazy. "The house-elves, of course! Most of them belonged to my family and came to live here after the marriage. They were very loyal to my sister and to me as well. The one that answered the door was the one who reported directly to me. He told me everything that went on in this house. After Padma was murdered, he informed me that Draco was blackmailing Blaise, but that Blaise was going to turn the tables on him at this party."

"When he saw Ron turn up, he was prepared though; because he had been planning on showing Hermione all the information he had collected on her husband anyway, so why not humiliate him in person instead?" She covered Ron back up and then looked over at Hermione, who was clinging to Draco and sobbing. "The only reason I didn't kill you is because Draco loves you." Her hand slid across the sheet as if caressing the dead body underneath. "He was very kind to my sister, and so I decided to repay his kindness by helping him to get the woman he loves."

"You killed Pansy so Draco could be with me?" Hermione asked, with morbid fascination.

"I knew being the conceited whore she was; sooner or later she would run to her cosmetics bag to powder her plastic nose. Yes, I killed that slut, bitch of a wife of his, so that he would be free to be with you."

"Oh, what a very splendid thing to do!" Ginny said sarcastically. "How nice of you to go and turn Pansy into what resembles a charred fish-stick, just so Draco-fucking- Malfoy can be happy!"

"I'd shut your trap if I were you, Ginny. After all, I have no reason to keep you alive, do I?" She took her hand from the bed walked slowly up to Ginny. She stopped directly in front of her and stuck her wand under Ginny's chin. "On second thought, maybe I'll keep you alive..." She seemed to ponder this and then said, "Yes. I'll let Draco and Hermione escape, kill Harry, stun you, and plant false memories in your mind of you being the killer."

"What about motive?" Draco asked. "Who's going to believe that Ginny killed everyone? That's beyond stupid."

Parvati's smile faltered. "Hmmm. You're right, Draco." She shoved the wand harder into Ginny's neck. "Well, then I'll just have to kill them both and leave no survivors. The house-elves will tell them that Blaise went psycho, killed everyone but Harry and when Harry saw his beloved wife was dead, he killed himself- with this wand."

Harry saw Ginny's eyes widen with fear, and he quickly thought of something to distract Parvati. "How are you going to use that wand to kill me, when we all saw for a fact that our wands were useless? Blaise cast a spell..."

God you're an idiot, aren't you?" Parvati snapped.

Hermione suddenly realized something. "When Blaise died, the spell was broken..."

"Very good, Hermione!" Parvati said taking the wand out of Ginny's face and turning towards her. "When I killed that sorry excuse for a man, your wands once more became functional and more importantly, the doors and windows were no longer sealed!" She giggled brightly as if she had just won the lottery. "That's right! You could have escaped out the front door anytime you wanted!" She was grinning manically. "But it's too late now, and I'm afraid that I must kill the both of you."

Ginny backed up, bumping into Harry, who held her tightly with one hand- hiding his body so that he could take out the gun without Parvati seeing.

"Do you honestly think I'm going to stand here and do nothing while you kill Harry and Ginny, and then just let you walk away? I'll kill you before I let that happen!" Hermione said, digging deep and finding her courage.

Parvati seemed a little shocked. "I'm really sorry, Draco, but it looks as if I'm going to have to kill your precious Hermione as well. Hell! I might as well just kill all of you!"  
As she backed up and aimed her wand at the small group, the lights suddenly came on, blinding them all. Harry took his chance and pulled out the gun, pushed Ginny to the side and cocked it, ready to blow Parvati's fucking head off.

Parvati heard the gun, turned, slashed her wand in Harry's direction and sent him flying into the wall. The gun flew from his hand, bounced off the carpet and landed at Draco's feet.

Draco bent to pick it. He let go of Hermione long enough for Parvati to grab a hold of her, spin her around, pinning her arm painfully behind her back and hold her wand directly over Hermione's chest. Draco pointed the gun at Parvati's head, his aim was steady and his eyes were hard.

"Let her go, you cunt and maybe you won't die," he said.

"Please, Draco," she said with a little laugh. "You don't even know how to use a Muggle gun. I on the other hand, no very well how to use a wand. Do you want to take a chance with her life? Do you think you could figure out how to shoot me before I can kill her?"  
Draco looked at Hermione, not knowing what to do and hoping to find an answer in her eyes. Parvati was right; he had no clue how to fire this gun. What if he missed and killed Hermione instead?

"What the hell are you waiting for, Malfoy?" Harry asked. "Shoot the bitch!"

Sweat was beginning to pour down his face and it was burning his eyes. His hand was starting to shake as he became more unsure by the second.

"Malfoy!" Harry shouted. "You damn coward, do something!"

"Just shut the fuck up, Potter!" He had caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye- something no one else was seeing and he smiled to himself.

Parvati was almost pleading. "Just think about it, Draco. What if you hit her by mistake and her head explodes like a melon? Do you really want to go through life knowing you killed the only woman you ever loved?"

Harry was frustrated beyond belief. "Don't listen to her!"

It was too late; Draco lowered the gun, looking defeated.

"That's a good boy, now toss the gun away," Parvati said.

Draco looked up sadly and threw the revolver. It landed behind her with a soft thud next to the bedroom door.

"Now, I'm going to let her go, and then she's going to line up with the rest of you so that I can finish the job!" She pushed Hermione, sending her falling into Draco. "I think I'll kill you first," she said to Ginny. "Maybe I'll scalp you and make a wig out of that glorious ginger hair of yours."

There was a tense moment and then, the rest of them saw what Draco had seen and their eyes lit up with hope.

"And then I think Hermione should die..."

"The only person in this room that's going to die is you, Parvati," Neville said from behind her.

Parvati spun around. "Neville! You look like death! What happened to you?"

"You know damn right what happened to me, you crazy bitch! You hit me with a fucking brick and pushed me down a flight of fucking stairs!" He was hiding the gun behind his back, praying that she didn't notice. "Why?"

Parvati rolled her eyes. "Neville, darling, I had to do it. You saw me and I couldn't let you tell them it was me!" She slowly raised her wand. "This is like the never ending night from hell, isn't it? I feel as if I've been killing all night and have gotten absolutely nowhere!" She sighed heavily. "Well, I have no one to blame but myself, right? I should have made sure that you were dead, Neville. A stupid mistake- one that I'm going to rectify right now by making your brain explode in your skull."

"I don't think so," Neville said, and before Parvati could do anything, Neville tossed the gun to Harry who quickly took aim and shot her, right in the back of the head. Neville watched her shocked expression go slack, and then she fell face forward into the purple carpet.

Harry stood there, the smell of gun smoke wafting up his flared nostrils. Did he really just kill someone? It all had happened so fast!

"The authorities are on their way," Neville said, he was swaying and looked like he had been run over by a train. "I heard her say that the spell was broken, so I went and flooed the Ministry. Then I managed to get the lights back on and stagger back up the stairs."

"Thanks Neville," Hermione said, kissing his cheek. "You saved us all."

Neville blushed and stammered, " WW...what are we going to tell them when they get here?"

Harry walked over and with the toe of his slipper, gently moved Parvati's hand to see if she was still alive. No response. "We tell them everything. They'll want to know what happened."

"Everything?" Ginny asked, meaning the blackmail and the secrets.

"Well, maybe not everything. We don't need to mention certain... er... things, but if they ask who killed the murderer, tell them that it was Harry Potter- in the bedroom- with the revolver."

Suddenly, Ron sat up and started clapping. "That was bloody brilliant, mate! Best script yet!"

EPILOGUE  
"I agree! Luna! Where's Luna?" Harry shouted.

Luna came strolling into the room, followed by George, Seamus and Padma, who were all smiles.

"That was a damn brilliant script, Luna!" Harry said excitedly.

"Thank you, but it would have been nothing without George's special effects and makeup!" She was a little shocked that her script was so well liked.

"It was way better than Ron's attempt last month!" Harry said, holding out his hand and helping Parvati to her feet.

"Hey now," Ron said, pulling his legs out from underneath him. He stood up and fake bloody intestines fell to the carpet with a plop. "Mine was MUCH better than that disaster Seamus made up!"

Draco frowned and rolled his eyes. "Please Weasley! You having the Butler be the one who did it was the dumbest and most played out thing I've ever seen! It was painful to be a part of!"

"Does it matter?" Ginny said, laughing. "We all agree that Luna's is the best so far, even better that Hermione's!"

Draco cleared his throat, "Well if it weren't for Hermione and her wonderful imagination, we would have never started this little monthly production. Her's was the first and in my opinion, still remains the best." He winked at her and she smiled sweetly back. No one but Luna and Harry caught the unmistakable exchange of love that passed between them.

Harry thought at first it must have been his imagination, but on second glance, he saw that hey were indeed gazing longingly into each other's eyes. 'What the hell?' he thought. 'How is this possible?’

Pansy walked in the room, wiping her face with a towel, trying to get the black makeup off. "I'm getting sick and tired of this! Why is it that I always have to die?"

"Because we all hate you and really wish you were dead," Draco said and then laughed like he didn't mean it when he really did, and was pretty sure everyone else felt the same.

"Well, I get to write the next one and I'm sure as hell going to have fun thinking of ways for all of you to die!"

"Surely you're not planning on killing me?" Blaise asked, entering the room still wearing only his underwear and the noose around his neck. "I will not be murdered twice in a row, and especially in a way concocted by my evil-minded wife."

Pansy lifted her eyebrow as if to say 'oh, really?'

I'm your husband and I forbid it!" Blaise said, stomping his foot.

George chuckled. "Forbid it? For Merlin's sake man! We all know she wears your balls around her neck!"

"Yeah! If there was ever anyone pussy whipped, it's you!" Seamus said. "She is definitely the man in the relationship!"

Blaise turned on Seamus with furry. "Shut up, Finnigin! I heard you have to massage YOUR wife's scaly stinky feet every night, and Marcus told me he even spotted you buying her tampons at the store! Talk about whipped! You'd never catch me pacing the pad aisle!"

"Enough!" Harry said. "I really don't want to hear about how Parvati has feet that look and smell like a trout..."

"I do not!" she said, pouting. "I have very pretty feet!"

"Whatever!" Harry snapped. "I for one am tired and really should be getting to bed. Shall we call it a night?"

Everyone agreed, and filed out of the room and down the stairs.

"Do you need some help cleaning this up, Draco?" Luna asked, standing in the foyer. "We really did make a mess."

Draco smiled gratefully at her. "No, that's okay. I haven't been able to sleep lately, and cleaning this up will give me something to occupy my mind." He looked around at all the scuff marks and the fake blood pool with a brick lying in the center. He thought about cleaning up all the broken glass upstairs, and maybe- just maybe- he would pick up a shard of that glass and slice his wrists open...

"I'm really sorry about your wife leaving you," Luna said in her innocent voice. "I never really liked her much."

Everyone looked around uncomfortably. Draco's face was expressionless.

"I thought she was a right bitch," Blaise said with a smirk. "You're better off without her, mate."

"Draco," Padma said, laying her tiny slender hand gently on his arm. "Zabini is right- for once." She shot Blaise a look of pure loathing. "Now you are free to find the woman who will truly love you as much as you love her. There IS such a person out there whether you believe it or not." She squeezed his arm slightly. "Someday you will be happy again. You will find the woman you desire and you will make her yours, I know it."

Draco wanted to throw her off and scream to whole room that he could care less that his wife left him. What was making him depressed and suicidal was the fact that he HAD found the love he desired and was forced to watch her live her life with someone else!

Hermione lifted her eyes from the floor and searched out his. She saw pure pain in them, pain that she to felt- every second of the day. She wanted nothing more than to run to him, throw her arms around him and tell him over and over how much she loved him.

"Yes, well, thank you for your kindness," Draco managed to say, tearing his eyes away from Hermione's. "I guess I'll be seeing you in a few weeks, then?" He said to the group, who were now walking out of the front door and onto the well manicured wet lawn.

"Sooner than that, Malfoy," Harry said. "We have that meeting tomorrow, remember?"

"Oh, right!" Draco said. It had completely slipped his mind. He cringed at the thought of sitting in a room with Potter and Weasley all afternoon discussing this and that.

Luna stood on tip-toe and kissed Draco on the cheek. "Bye-bye!" She waved and then Disapparated. George took Padma's hand and after saying their farewells, they too went home.

"See you, mate!" Seamus said with a salute. He and Parvati walked down the path a bit and then disappeared. Neville patted the dog for a bit and then after yawning hugely, said that Hannah would be waiting up and he needed to get going.

After he left, Pansy said with relief and a bit of distaste, "I'm so glad he's gone!”Pretending to make love to Longbottom was nauseating!" She shivered. "His hands all over me! I need to take a shower for like ten hours to disinfect myself!" She brushed her dress as if making invisible Lonbottom-cooties fall to the ground. "How about you, Draco?" she said, looking to see if Hermione and everyone else was out of earshot.  
Hermione and Ginny were looking at the roses and Ron and Harry were discussing Quidditch or something. "I bet you were totally disgusted having to pretend to have sex with Granger in that closet, right?"

Draco glanced over at Hermione, who had picked a rose and was holding it under her nose, inhaling its sweetness. The moonlight was dripping down, illuminating her figure under that silky nightgown she was still wearing. She looked sexy and beautiful. "Pretending. Yeah..." he said, dragging his eyes from the lovely vision before him and looking down at Pansy's grimace. "It was the most horrible experience of my life."

"And yet," Blaise said. "It wasn't the first time it's happened, is it?" He furrowed his brow, thinking. "If I'm not mistaken, both your script and her's had scenes with you having sex." He grinned slyly at Draco, who just looked blankly back at him. "Are you trying to tell us something?"

"Like what?" Draco asked. "You think Granger and I have something going?"

Blaise looked into Draco's face, trying to discover if he was indeed getting it on with the Mudblood.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Pansy said. "Draco and Granger?" She laughed so hard she snorted. "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard!" She grabbed Blaise by the arm and pulled him down the path and together they Disapparated, Pansy's laughter hanging in the air.

***

"I'm telling you, there is something going on!" Ron was trying to keep his voice low, but was finding it increasingly difficult to do. "That's the third time it's happened!"

Harry agreed whole-heartedly with Ron. There was definitely something going on, but he decided not to voice his suspicions- he was going to lie instead. "You're just being paranoid! Hermione loves you. Why would she ever cheat on you with Malfoy? She hates him."

Ron frowned. Was he just being paranoid? It was just that she was so smart and beautiful, and he often wondered just what in the bloody hell she was doing with him. There were plenty of other men out there; men that were more attractive- and had more money; men like Draco Malfoy.

Harry saw that Ron was still thinking about it and smacked him in the head.

"Oi! What did you do that for?" He asked, holding his head as if in severe pain.

"Trying to knock some sense into you! She loves you and she would NEVER have an affair with another man- especially Malfoy."

Ron looked at Harry's serious face and decided he was right. "I'm just being stupid, aren't I?"

"Like always," Harry said, laughing. They walked over to Draco, who was standing alone on the front steps looking at the storm clouds that were blowing in. "Well, Malfoy, it's been fun. I look forward to doing it again."

"Yes, I rather enjoy our little get-togethers." He felt suddenly more depressed than he had ever felt in his life. He really did look forward to their game of Clue, not only because he got to see Hermione, but because for that one day a month, he felt as if he had real friends.

He watched as Hermione put a rose tenderly behind her ear. She looked up at him, her head tilted to the side, her hair falling over her shoulder and she mouthed the words 'I love you'. His pulse rushed and he suddenly knew he couldn't stand there a moment longer without shouting to the heavens that he loved her too. He abruptly turned, walked up the steps, slamming the door behind him.

"What the hell was that all about?" Ron asked Harry, as Hermione and Ginny walked over.

"Don't know."

They looked at the door a moment longer and then Ron asked if they were ready to go.

"More than ready," Harry said. "It's been a long night."

They started to walk down the path when Hermione suddenly stopped. "Oh, no! I've forgotten something! I'll be right back!" she said and rushed back towards the Manor.  
Draco was sitting in the library in the chair facing the fire. He was holding Hermione's jumper in his hands, and his tears were falling onto the soft fabric. He didn't hear the front door open and he didn't hear her approaching, until she spoke.

"Draco?" she said softly.

He didn't answer and so she came around the chair and knelt down, taking his hand from the jumper and grasping it in her own.

"I can't do this anymore, Hermione," he said, letting the tears fall; wanting her to see his pain.

"We have no choice. We knew it from the beginning, and we agreed to keep it a secret."  
Draco lifted his head and she closed her eyes as his fingers caressed her cheek. "I'm suffering, Hermione. You have no idea how it feels to want to touch you, hold you- make love to you, and not be able to."

***

"What the hell is taking her so long?" Ron asked angrily. "I'm going to see what's going on." He started towards the door, but Harry held him back.

"I'll go. I need to ask him something about the meeting tomorrow anyway." He hoped Ron would agree. Who knew what he would find if he just barged into the house? Ginny was looking at him strangely, knowing something wasn't right.

"Fine! But hurry!"

Harry quietly opened the front door and made his way down the hall. He had no idea where Hermione and Draco were, so he just looked in every room until at last he heard voices coming from inside the library. He crept silently over to the partially closed door and listened.

"You don't think I'm suffering as well?" Hermione said. "How do you think I feel looking at Ron everyday and wishing it were you I was sharing my life with instead?" she stood and strode over to the fireplace. I wish things could be different, but there are children involved- your children. They think Ron is their father and to tell them otherwise would crush them."

Draco smirked. "Do you think it was a coincidence that Luna put that in her script? About our children, I mean?"

Hermione watched the flames dancing, seeing strange shapes. "Luna is very perceptive. She sees things that others ignore."

"Do you think she knows that we're in love?" Draco stood and walked over to her, embracing her and planting gentle kisses on her neck.

Harry just about gasped out loud with shock. Hermione and Draco? In Love and... the children were really Malfoy's? He could not think why she would love HIM- apparently some things were meant to remain a mystery. He slowly backed away from the door and made his way back outside.

***

"Well?" Ron asked angrily. "Where is she?"

"She's coming," Harry said, still in shock. "She's just stopped to talk to the house-elves."

***

Draco was sucking the skin on her neck, his hands running hungrily over the thin material covering her breasts. "I wish everyone could know how much I love you."

"That's not possible, and unless you have a better idea, my love," Hermione said, turning around and kissing him passionately. "We have to keep our secret."

Draco suddenly did have a wonderful idea. When it was once again his turn to write the murder mystery script, there was really going to BE a murder- Weasley was going to die. "If you say so my, darling. You never know, perhaps your dear husband will meet with an untimely death and then we can be together- forever."

THE END NOVEMBER 20, 2007


End file.
